An Indian ISP Says Authorities Asked It to Block Access to Dark Web Marketplaces

The Indian Government went on a censorship frenzy last week, blocking access to over 800 pornography websites, before sheepishly rolling back the move after uproar on social media.

But it looks like the government hasn't just been after porn; according to a letter provided by one internet service provider (ISP) in the country, Indian officials asked it to block access to a handful of dark web marketplaces.

The letter, dated 12 June and addressed to "All Internet Service Licensees," laid out hidden services the government wanted cut off. A screenshot of the letter was uploaded to Twitter by Ajay Data, the owner of an ISP in the Indian state of Rajasthan, and Motherboard has seen a scan of the document. Data said he received the letter in late July.

"All the Internet Service licensees are accordingly directed to immediately block the access to above URLs and keyword," the document reads.

The eight URLs listed include the onion address for Agora, the popular dark web market known for selling drugs (and up until recently, weapons). Abraxas, a smaller drug market, is also listed, as well as a couple of very small sites, one of which specialises in selling psychedelics such as LSD and mescaline. "Silk Road Reloaded," a market hosted on the I2P network, is also listed.

At the time of writing, two of the other URLs aren't responding, and one is currently hosting only a placeholder homepage.

It is unclear whether other Indian ISPs have received the letter. It also doesn't appear to be directly related to the action against pornography websites; Data said he had not received a request to block porn sites.

Officials from India's Department of Telecommunications did not reply to multiple requests for comment, but Pranesh Prakash, policy director at Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore, India, said he felt the letter was genuine. He pointed out that the legislation sections used to justify the attempted blocks were not the same as those used to clamp down on pornography sites.

The porn bans fell under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act 2000, Prakash said. Meanwhile, these dark web blocks are listed under Section 69A of the same legislation. This section states that sites can be blocked "in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above."

From that list, Prakash said that the only thing marketplaces might fall under is "public order."

"It is questionable whether the existing Supreme Court jurisprudence on what constitutes a breach of "public order" would allow for a drug site to be blocked under section 69A, on grounds of protecting 'public order,'" he told Motherboard over encrypted chat.

But it may be pointless anyway, because trying to block access to individual Tor hidden services is likely to be totally ineffective.

"We don't see how they possibly could block individual .onion addresses," Kate Krauss, a representative of the Tor Project, told Motherboard over encrypted chat.

The Indian media has taken a renewed interest in the dark web recently. Last week, three men were arrested for selling drugs that they had bought from the dark web to students, with one Indian journalist breathlessly reporting that while the porn ban was going on, Indian children were "buying hash online."

Trying to block marketplaces like this is not going to stop them.