VLC media player’s website ban lifted in India: All the details – Times of India

Back in August this year, he government of India had banned portable streaming player VLC’s website in the country. Reports had alleged that the ban was because of the Chinese ‘connection’, when in fact, VLC media player is an open source software from a France-based group. Now, the ban has been lifted as non-profit organisation Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) tweeted regarding the same. The official Twitter handle of VLC Media Player also tweeted that the ban has been lifted.

What is VLC Media Player?
VLC is popular streaming player as it supports many audio and video compression methods and file formats, including DVD-Video, Video CD and streaming protocols. The software can stream media over a computer network and transcode multimedia files. Like most multimedia frameworks, VLC has a modular design which makes it easier to include modules/plugins for new file formats, codecs, interfaces or streaming methods.
Why was VLC ‘banned’ in India?
It was reported that a Chinese hacker group named Cicada had used VLC to deliver malware. According to cyber-security researchers at Symantec, the Cicada victims were found in India, the US, Canada, Israel, Hong Kong and several other countries. The researchers at Symantec found that the China-based attackers used VLC Media Player to install malware on compromised devices. The attack is claimed to be backed by the Chinese government.
The government of India hadn’t given any reason officially why VLC was banned and even now there is no explanation given on the lifting of the ban.
What was the impact on users?
In August, the government had blocked the VLC website — videolan.org — on Windows machines. This means that users couldn’t access it on their Windows laptops and PCs. ‘The site can’t be reached’ was the message that appears when one tries to open the VLC website. However, back then the VLC app did work on both iOS and Android as only the website was banned.