After banning VLC Player months ago in India, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has now lifted the ban. This comes after VideoLan, a non-profit organization that operates VLC Player, issued a legal notice in October demanding the reason behind the ban.
Now You Can Download Vlc Media Player
The unbanning of the VLC Player in India means that you will now be able to download the player from the VideoLan website. This news comes from a tweet by the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), which supported VideoLan legally when the ban came into effect.
A lot of people were worried about the VLC player getting banned in India. But, after the ban was lifted, they found out that the ban was actually because of the app being used by hackers to steal data. The app was also accused of being used by Chinese hackers to spy on Indian citizens. However, the developers of the app deny these accusations. They claim that the app is safe and does not contain any malicious code.
Following the ban, many telecom companies started blocking the player without giving any valid reason. As a result, VideoLAN and IFF, in September, sent a letter to the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) demanding answers to the sudden block. In a reply, MeitY gave an answer and suggested that the Vlc Player displayed “suspicious behaviour”.
It was accused of being exploited by a China-backed hacker group called Cicada to gain access to user’s personal data and hinder their privacy. The information came from a report published by security firm Symantec in May this year. VideoLAN denied such claims. The company’s president and lead developer Jean Baptiste Kempf stated that this ban is a consequence of a misunderstanding.
He stressed that the Vlc Player is being used by around 80 million people, who want to receive updates through unsafe third parties, making themselves more vulnerable to cyber attacks.
We’re excited to hear that the VLC Player has been unbanned in India! What do you think about the new update? Let us know in the comments below.