One of the most popular media player software and streaming media server VLC media player, developed by VideoLAN, is no longer available in India. A report by MediaNama said that VLC Media Player was blocked in India nearly 2 months ago. Neither the Indian government nor the company have revealed any details about the ban.
Some reports suggest that VLC Media Player has been blocked in the country because the platform was backed by China-backed hacking group Cicada, which was using it for cyber attacks. Security experts discovered just a few months ago that Cicada was using VLC Media Player to deploy a malicious malware loader as part of a long-running cyber attack campaign.
Since it was a soft ban, neither the company nor the Indian government have officially announced the banning of the media platform. Some users on Twitter are still learning about the restrictions of the platform. One of the Twitter users who have been named Gagandeep Sapra has posted a screenshot of the VLC website that shows that the website has been blocked under IT Act, 2000 by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The VLC Media Player website and download link are currently blocked in the country. This means that no one in the country can access the platform for any work. Users who have the software installed on their device may find this to be the case. It's said that VLC Media Player is blocked on all major ISPs including ACTFibernet, Jio, Vodafone-idea, and others.
Recently, the Indian government blocked hundreds of Chinese apps, including PUBG Mobile, TikTok, Camscanner and more. In India, the PUBG Mobile IndianPUBG Mobile Indian version dubbed BGMI has been blocked and removed from the Google Play store and Apple App store. The government feared these platforms were sending user data to China, which is the reason behind blocking these apps. The Chinese company does not backed VLC Media Player. It is developed by VideoLAN, a Paris-based firm.