Centre Bans VLC Media Player; VideoLAN Says Govt Refuses To Answer Their Questions

The government has banned the popular open-source video playing software VLC Media Player in India. The Media Player website no longer works in the country and users cannot download the program’s exe file (windows executable file) for installation anymore. However, it is still available for download on the Apple app store and Google play store for smaller devices.

While the ban was imposed in February this year, it was unnoticed, until now when the player’s developer company VideoLAN reached out to the internet for help.

“The website has been blocked as per the order of Ministry of Electronics and Information technology under IT Act, 2000”, reads a message when users try to open the media platform.

The Paris-based non-profit VideoLAN has said that it has no idea why the Indian government banned the platform.

“We don’t know why (they took down VLC media player). We guess this is because of them (government) not understanding a security issue. We did not get notifications. They refuse to answer our questions,” VideoLan told The Cognate.

The government has not revealed why it banned the VLC Media Player.

Nobody is aware of the rationale behind the prohibition, according to a Right to Information (RTI) request made by the Internet Freedom Foundation. The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) stated that they submitted the RTI on the website’s ban to the Department of Telecom in June. Meity, or the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, received the request from DOT. On July 14, Meity responded, “No information is available [with MeitY],”

The VideoLAN website has been down since February 13, rendering users unable to download or update VLC Media Player. However, users who have already had the app installed on their devices are able to access and use it.