The Manipur High Court is now pressing to find ways to restore broadband Internet across the State (with a block on social media websites) even as the Manipur government has said this is difficult because Virtual Private Network (VPN) services can still be used to access blocked sites.
Continuing the hearing on a batch of public interest litigation (PILs) petitions seeking restoration of Internet services in the State, a Division Bench of Justices Ahanthem Bimol Singh and A. Guneshwar Sharma on Friday directed Internet service providers and both the Centre and the State government to explore the possibility of blocking VPN servers as well to sidestep this issue.
In response to a specific plea regarding restoration of Internet access, the Manipur government had said on June 16 that it is possible to restore broadband Internet with a block on social media sites. But it added that this would not prevent people from using VPN services to continue accessing restricted content.
