How a Google wifi initiative turned an Indian train-station into a porn-hub

photo credit: privatejobshub

Late last year Google entered into a partnership with RailTel and India Railways to provide commuters with free public wi-fi access at train stations across India. Indian train stations are hives of activities as many of the more than 1,2 billion population rely on trains as a primary mode of transportation.

The product, Google Station, is part of Google’s “Next Billion Users” initiative which according to its VP Caesar Sengupta aims to:

…”organise the world’s information, but also allow Indians to create the Internet they need”… 

A report by Google India stated that 15,000 users go online each day through these train stations which translates to about 5,4 million users a year accessing high-quality wifi provided by Google. Who would have imagined users would turn such a great initiative into an opportunity to binge on porn, a claim that

Who would have imagined users would turn such a great initiative into an opportunity to binge on porn, a claim that RailTel has since distanced themselves from by stating that:

RailTel, being an Internet Service Provider, does not keep watch over the web sites being browsed by the users.

According to a report in the IndiaTimes, Railtel currently provides a 1-gigabit connection to all users with plans to expand to 10 gigabits due to complaints from users of slow browsing experiences. However, users at railway stations have been using these fast internet speeds to browse porn with the top culprit being one “Patna Station” where users browse porn followed by YouTube then Wikipedia.

It’s not surprising that Indians have turned to porn over free wifi. India was the 3rd highest consumer of porn in 2015 with 60% of its users accessing it from a mobile phone. Porn in India is a cultural taboo their Government has tried to deal with over the past couple of years.

Last year, Indian Government  unsuccessfully attempted to ban 857 pornographic websites. The backlash from the public was so severe  the government had to reverse its ban which ended in its swift termination a day after it was announced.

Luckily for the Zimbabwean Government, there is no such thing as free public wifi in Zimbabwe. Yes, there is the free 30min/50mb Zolspot but that is not significant enough to do any “meaningful” browsing. 

However, this has raised our interest in what Zimbabweans are using some of the cheap public wifi hotspots in Zimbabwe for. Something that ISPs will most likely be reluctant to share seeing that porn is “illegal in Zimbabwe” but enquiries have been sent out nonetheless.