Airtel and Jio likely using middleboxes to block websites in India, finds report

Internet users know well that thousands of websites in India, many of them file-sharing or porn sites, are banned in India. Now a report sheds some light on the methods used by Jio and Airtel, which are prominent internet service providers in the country, to block these websites. A report notes that Airtel -- and likely Jio but not confirmed use middleboxes, which are specially-configured routers to resolve website DNS, to block websites in India. However, the latest report makes it clear that unlike the rudimentary website blocking done on the basis of banned domain name lists earlier, now Airtel and Jio are employing more sophisticated blocking measures, similar to the ways and tools used by China to block thousands of websites. “ISPs like Jio, Airtel and Vodafone monitor this field for names of websites they wish to block, intercept such requests, and return anything they wish as a response,” the researchers noted in their blog post.