VLC ban in India: Devices you can use it on and the ones that you cannot – Times of India

VLC, the free open-source, portable, cross-platform media player software and streaming media server has reportedly been banned in India on Windows devices. MediaNama was the first to report about the ban on the VLC Media Player in the country. Incidentally the ban is not new, it has been almost six months since the media player has been banned. The ban on the VLC player came into effect some time in February this year. It is likely that the platform was banned along with 54 Chinese apps in February 2022. However, VLC is not a China-based software, it is a France-based group. The government too has not issued any statement on the ban on the VLC media player. Another difference is that unlike the complete ban on the 54 Chinese apps, the ban on the VLC media player is partial.
Devices you can still use VLC media player on
The VLC website, videolan.org, is not accessible on Windows machines. ‘The site can’t be reached’ is the message that appears on trying to open it. However, the VLC app is available for download on both Google Play Store as well as Apple App Store. Similarly, the users who already have the software downloaded on their PCs can use it.

Why was VLC ‘banned’ in India
As mentioned above, the government has not said anything about the ban on VLC. According to the report, the government may have banned VLC download from the official website as some cybersecurity experts claimed that the Chinese hacker group named Cicada used VLC to deliver malware. The attack is claimed to be backed by the Chinese government. Cicada has reportedly targeted multiple groups involved in political, legal and religious activities.