Study Finds India Has Blocked Over 43,000 Internet Domains, Revealing Scale of DNS Censorship

A new study led by researcher Karan Saini analyzed 294 million registered domains against DNS resolvers of six major Indian ISPs, revealing that at least 43,083 domains are blocked in India—six times more than previous estimates. The study highlights inconsistent implementation of blocking orders, including some government domains, and notes that only about 9,000 blocked sites are widely visited. Due to confidential blocking orders and lack of ISP disclosure, the true extent of internet censorship in India remains difficult to assess.