Airtel has announced a new AI-based website blocking system that is designed to track and block fraudulent websites in India. A noble effort, except Airtel’s implementation could very well hamper your freedom on the internet.
Airtel claims the new “cutting-edge solution” will “detect and block malicious websites across all communication Over-The-Top (OTT) apps and platforms including emails, browsers, OTTs like WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram, SMS et.al in real time.” The feature is enabled by default, and users have no way of opting out or accessing a website that’s flagged by Airtel’s systems.
The system will explain to you why a website has been blocked, but apart from that, there’s not much control given to you in case a user understands the risk and still wants to access the website. The service is currently available in the Haryana circle, with a nationwide rolled scheduled later. Gopal Vittal, vice chairman and managing director of the company, claims that the system has reached a “remarkable level of accuracy in the 6 months of trials,” and promises to continue working on the system until Airtel’s networks are “completely safe from spam and scam.”
Does India need such a system?
The short answer is yes.
Between January and June 2025, “satta” or betting has been the fifth most searched term in the country on Google, with a majority of searches coming from the states of Goa and Haryana. With betting sites running rampant in the country and exploiting the lack of regulation and law conflicts between the central and state governments, this opens up a window for scammers to get away with targeting a huge number of internet users in the country.
Apart from this, OTP and general financial fraud have been a problem for as long as the country has had access to the internet. Digital knowledge and good cybersecurity practices aren’t the norm among nearly a billion internet subscribers in the country, so a system that blocks websites from the ISP’s end can reduce these incidents by a lot.
What’s wrong with Airtel’s implementation?
While Airtel’s AI-based scam blocking system could theoretically protect millions, its implementation leaves much to be desired. Airtel hasn’t explained what threat databases or parameters it uses to flag websites, meaning as things stand, you’re at the mercy of Airtel’s AI system while browsing the internet. With no explanation of how the underlying systems work, legitimate sites stand the risk of being blocked without warning. Once blocked, users on Airtel internet connections will have no way of accessing them either.
The Indian internet is dominated by a handful of companies, including Airtel, Jio, and Vodafone Idea. Local broadband providers do exist, but they often lease connections from bigger ISPs, meaning this new AI system could, in theory, affect local ISPs who get their internet access from Airtel.
There’s also no legal basis for AI-based blocking at the ISP level in India. Discriminatory treatment of content is prohibited in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT)’s licensing framework, but is allowed in limited and clearly defined cases under clause 2.1 of the Unified License for Internet Service Providers issued by the DoT, as explained by the Internet Freedom Foundation.
This puts Airtel’s AI system in a legal grey zone where it poses censorship risks. Without public oversight and transparency in the site identifying and blocking process, Airtel essentially assumes full control of your internet. The situation threatens both your online privacy and access to an open internet.
To make matters worse, Airtel’s systems scan your web traffic in real-time to identify threats. This includes everything from emails, SMSes, OTT platforms, and regular web traffic. With no information on what Airtel is doing with this data, how the AI system will process it, or whether they’ll store it, it raises concerns about mass surveillance.
There’s no public oversight or no independent regulatory body, or any sort to ensure the captured data isn’t misused. Being at the mercy of a private organisation to protect your data hasn’t fared well historically. At this pace, once the infrastructure for Airtel’s AI monitoring systems is in place, nothing is stopping the company from spying on its users with unbridled access to their digital footprints or censoring their internet access.
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