The popular media player, VLC says that Indian telecom operators have been blocking its website since February which is potentially impacting the users base of VLC in India. “Most major ISPs [internet service providers] are banning the site, with diverse techniques,” VideoLan president and lead developer Jean-Baptiste Kempf said of the blocking of the VLC website in India. The Indian telecom operators began blocking the VLC website on February 13 of this year, when the site saw a drop of 80% in traffic from the South Asian market, he said.
The Blocking of VLC Website in India Has Resulted in 20% Decline of Traffic
India represents 10% of all VLC users worldwide, he said. The website’s traffic has seen an overall decline of 20% as a result of the blocking in India. Indian telecom operators have not explained why they have blocked the VLC website, but some speculate that it could be because of a misapprehension of a security warning from earlier this year. Security firm Symantec reported in April this year that the hacker group Cicada was exploiting VLC Media Player as well as several other popular applications to gain remote access to the victim’s computers.
Media Player ‘VLC’ Has Been Downloaded Over 3.5 Billion Times Worldwide
Kempf said he or his firm has not been contacted by any Indian government agency and the block of the website is likely a result of a misunderstanding of the Chinese security issue. VLC, downloaded over 3.5 billion times worldwide, is a local media player that doesn’t require internet access or connection to any particular service online for the vast majority of its features. A block on the VLC website doesn’t impact the existing install base of VLC. Users can also continue to receive updates from mirror websites and app stores.
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