DoT fails to block Uber-like taxi cos' websites

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has asked the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block websites of app-based taxi operators but the move may not succeed as the ISPs will reiterate their earlier stand that secured sites cannot be blocked due to technical reasons.

Though the DoT issued a letter to ISPs on May 11 directing them to block sites of app-based taxi operators, including Ola, Uber and  TaxiForSure, following a request from the Delhi government, public still access their websites without any hindrances.

The ISPs have expressed their inability to block any website which is secured (https). “These sites cannot be blocked because of technical issues. We have already given a representation to government. This was a general representation,” Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) president Rajesh Chharia told Deccan Herald.

”The ISPAI can’t block secured sites and mirror sites hosted from secured sites,” he said, adding that the DoT had itself accepted that there was a need to set up a committee to discuss modalities around blocking of secured (https) sites about three-four months ago. “We will submit a compliance report on which sites we have blocked and which we can’t,” he said.

After a driver of Uber, an US-based online taxi-hailing company, was accused of raping a woman passenger in the national capital last year, the Delhi government banned operations of all unregistered app-based taxi services.

However, after the Delhi government found that such services continued despite ban, it had written to the Department of Electronic & Information Technology (DEITy) in March to block the websites app-based taxi service providers.