• Source:JND
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VideoLAN, the non-profit organization behind the VLC Media Player has taken a bold step to know the reasons why VLC was blocked. The organization has sent a legal notice to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) which directly comes under the Government of India.

After the ban was imposed, VideoLAN with the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) filed an RTI application to the Department of Telecommunications which was later shifted to the Ministry of Electronics and Information.

According to the Internet Freedom Foundation, VideoLAN was not given any kind of notice or any chance of hearing after which the only option was to send a legal notice to these two government bodies.

“This is particularly shocking as the Indian government itself has endorsed the use of VLC as part of its Digital India initiative and has expressed its intention to use open source software for government applications, appears to be using the VLC Media Player icon and logo on its website to promote open source software," Kempf, the president and lead VLC developer of VideoLan

According to the reports, VideoLAN has claimed that it had approached the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to know the reason behind their app and website being banned but has not received any kind of response from them.

“Also note that VLC is secure and the Chinese hack part reported elsewhere is a misinterpretation of the security report. VLC is not controlled by China and is not dangerous," Kempf said at the time.