As India Quietly Eases Porn Ban During Crisis, Traffic Skyrockets

After Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the country of 1.3 billion into a nationwide shutdown two weeks ago, reports out of that country indicated that at least some of the hundreds of porn sites blocked there since October of 2018 were quietly coming back online.  As AVN.com reported, though there was no “official” lifting of the porn ban, PornHub quietly became accessible to Indian internet users just a day after the stay-at-home order went into effect, albeit via the site’s “.org” address. According to the reports, “PornHub.com” remained inaccessible.  Nonetheless, locked-down Indian citizens have been accessing PornHub content at a record rate since Modi’s shutdown order, according to a report by India’s Free Press Journal. The Mindgeek-owned site reports a staggering 95 percent increase in traffic from India as of late last week.  In fact, the increase in PornHub traffic began on March 8, about two weeks before the national lockdown went into effect. In addition to the PornHub increases, The “tube” site xHamster reported a 20 percent rise in Indian traffic over the first three weeks in March.  Some online commenters theorized that the government had quietly relaxed the national porn ban as an added incentive to keep Indians in their homes during the scheduled 21-day lockdown. Modi’s order is set to expire on April 14, though the government is now considering extending the lockdown, at least in “hot spots” such as the cities of Delhi and Mumbai.  PornHub also announced on March 25, the first full day of the lockdown, that despite the fact that the site was blocked in India, it would offer its “premium” paid content for free during the coronavirus crisis. The resulting spike in traffic from Indians forced to stay indoors immediately made that country the fastest-growing PornHub market. Photo By Ekabhishek / Wikimedia Commons