The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has partially blocked the file-sharing app ‘WeTransfer’ in India citing privacy concerns, according to media reports.

Multiple users this week flooded micro-blogging platform Twitter stating that they were unable to access the app, Gadgets360 reported.

The Netherlands-based company later confirmed that the app had been blocked for certain networks in India and said that VPN could be used as a “workaround” while they were investigating the matter.

“We have received reports that WeTransfer is being (partially) blocked in India. Our team is investigating the issue, we hope to have more details soon. In the meantime, the best workaround is to use a VPN service to access our site. Thanks for your patience!” the company had tweeted in response to a user complaint.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had passed an order to specific webpages of WeTransfer in India earlier this month, according to media reports. As per the order issued on May 18, the telecom department had provided a notice to internet service providers or ISPs to ban two specific URLs on the file-sharing platform citing privacy concerns, Entrackr reported.

The platform has been banned on Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea. According to a Gadgets 360 report, the website displays a message that reads, “You are not authorised to access this webpage as per the DoT compliance” as a user tries to access the platform from a Jio network. The platform was accessible on an Airtel cellular connection on Saturday, according to the Entrackr report, stating that a few ISPs were yet to implement the ban.

WeTransfer is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It is an online cloud-based platform for file sharing. Users can transfer different types of files of up to 2 GB for free to others on the Internet using the service. The premium version of the service allows users to share files with file size up to 20 GB.

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