Blocking Blogger

a lot of countries block blog websites because they don't want any of their people to have a voice at all. This way they won't know many other peoples ideas keeping them ignorant and unwilling to fix what is wrong in their country. Its sad truly but life is like that.

It's not just blogspot. They also blocked typepad and geocities. We all are totally disappointed about this sudden act by the government instead of blocking a single blog that caused all the troubles.

is funny though to see cenzorship acting in such a manner. Without having blogspot ...no Prblm...just install wordpress on a free hosting service and spread your ideas. there are plenty of solutions for someone who wants to speak.

Yes, because America has NEVER had a problem with censorship.

I have been following your blog for a while. I am hurt by the way you have compared china and pakistan with india for blocking a certain websites. I think india is one of biggest democratic country on this earth. Iam sure that any country which has to go through with the bomb blasts which rocked one of the great cities like mumbai will act to stop rumors and other mischiefs. Iam sure that these kind of things have had happened in any other part of world, then that country had gone to extremes. I think indian govt. wanted to block some blogs not whole of bloggers, and they know that there are ways to spread all kind of info other that blogs. so please dont compare india with any other not so democratic country.

thanks.

Patriot: keep in mind I'm just passing along the info from a source that I've found to be reputable in the past.

I'm sure there are reasons for all this stuff, but it doesn't pass the sniff test.

A democracy can't be a true democracy without a free exchange of ideas.

neha: of course we have. But we have the first ammendment and a system of laws that is supposed to keep the majority from kicking ass on the minority.

It doesn't always work, but we have fewer problems here with censorship than many other countries in the world.

If you talk to the immigrants here in the US you'll learn that a big reason they come here is because of the freedom of speech we enjoy here.

I don't see very many countries getting praised that way by immigrants.

I initially thought it was a technical glitch, that I was unable to access my blog on the 14th...but the number of ISP's blocking blogger access has been steadily increasing. The thing is, India has a rather vocal blogging community, and seemingly independent media that can make a lot of noise about this issue. It seems to be an arbitrary decision that has been badly implemented.

What everyone can do, is make a lot of noise about the issue, and contribute workarounds and suggestions [here]. And, heh, no plans to leave India just because blogspot's blocked. :D

Robert, this has happened before (Yahoogroups was blocked for a week)and It's more to do with incompetence than real censorship (of which Inida suffers a lot, but not on the net). The most likely reason is that a petty bureaucrat didn't understand the concept of subdomains. This too shall pass.

Rob, you may want to do a story on the censorship issue in India ( and why its happening in other countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh).

It's a huge issue in the Indian Blogosphere and the MSM is waking up to it.

My 1 cent.

Kiruba, I'm just waking up to it myself. Do you have some links to stories about this?

you might want to read this- http://www.shivamvij.com/2006/07/somebody-must-...
and
http://mutiny.wordpress.com/2006/07/17/blog-bla...

it can't be worse than this......

I simply can't understand why the Indian government would use such a blunt force method to block sites. They haven't made an official statement either which is weird. However, I know one thing, that this censorship will not last. India doesn't have the means to regulate with force like China does.

People will start immigrating en masse to the US because they can freely blog?

Freedom of speech may be one reason people immigrate, but I would contend it's still primarily for economic reasons, not becasue they will be able to blog. I not sure your little sampling you plan to do will be representitive of the larger immigrant population.

Not sure it's our place to "do anything about it". There are much larger issues for the US to solve than ensuring everyone can blog.

Robert, I think what everyone is missing is the fact that these blogges actually created a blog- mumbaihelp.blogspot.com to assist in recovery2.0 eforts after the incident of 7/11 !! They had contact numbers, links etc which was hosted on blogspot. Families of the victims used that as a resource for information sharing and culling.

However, that is being cut away becase of a directive from the Gov. of India (..for whatever reasons !!)Remember that the ISP's are blocking the whole domian and thus effecting the ethos of the blogpshere within India.. I wonder what will you say when scobleizer.wordpress.com is blocked by AOL or another ISP !!!

Couldn't we reverse this? I particularly would like at least two of those countries from seeing my blog - China and Pakistan. There can't really be anyone there who is THAT interested in my blog - and I'd probably have only a tenth of the spam I get now. I found a script to block a single IP address - but I'd like to blog entire countries. Before anyone says I'm narrow-minded, let me capitulate to that charge - but I have lived overseas. But if I'm getting 20-30 spam comments/day from one country and NO real comments in a month - sorry, they'll have to go. Yes, its very totalitarian of me, but once a good script for TypePad or Wordpress comes out that is "plug and play", I won't be the only blogger doing it.

Ooops... I meant "block entire countries", not "blog entire countries"... ha ha... although there is a subtle twist in that error. Blogging entire countries? I have a local directory that I manage here in Brevard County Florida (brevarddirectory.com) that folks in Thailand, among other places, like to "submit links" to, despite the obvious locality of the site. It gets a lot of international traffic from western countries (probably would-be tourists to Brevard), but some countries should go - how many Ethiopians are surfing the net checking out restaurants in Brevard County, Florida? I really think I'd be okay in "blocking entire countries" for some sites - and helping my traffic stats be a little more meaningful, too.

If you ask me, no websites should be blocked, because every country should have freedom of speech, (like we do) Who really gives a crap about what people say on their blogs. Wait, most people care. :-(

Elvis: actually a lot of people come here for freedom issues. It's why my wife's family moved her here when she was 14.

Does that matter? Well, her brother works on the Macintosh team at Apple.

Smart people leave systems that give them crap.

Robert -

First, proxy servers are still usable - and I know a TON of folks in India who are currently using them to access these blogs.

Second, I may be wrong here, but I think, that following 9/11, many Al-Qaeda sites were blocked by US ISPs too. As someone posted a link above, the blogs are not BANNED in India - they are blocked because some of these were operated by terrorist outfits. I do not see anything wrong in that. If the objective was to curtail freedom of speech, then other blogs like Wordpress, Indiatimes o3, etc would be banned too - but they are not.

Third, the other two countries - Pakistan and China - they do not have Democracy. So the "Freedom of speech" really does not exist, by definition. May be its just me, but I do not know a single person who immigrated with freedom of speech as his/her top reason. Most (all) people I know have moved because of career advancement and opportunties.

Robert,

Indian government asked for partuclar websites to be blocked, not entire blogspot. They did it simply because certain blogs were used by terrorists to communicate and co-ordinate the recent Mumbai blasts in which hundreds were killed.

Unfortunately ISP's decided to keep it simple and blocked *.blogspot.com.

I stayed and worked for several years in USA. Now I am operating my own business in India. Frankly these days the differences in lifestyle and freedom has significantly reduced. Your argument of migrating to US on this account is flawed.

Any sane government will try to block websites / resources which are used to spread terrorism against the country. US government almost routinely siezes computer's and other equipments suspected of being used in terrorist activities. Heck they even do it to stop music piracy not to mention hackers. What would they have done if such a site was hosted in India?

Unfortunately such solutions can only deter the most stupid terrorists (or wannabe's) due to widespread availability of proxy servers.

I think governments across the world should cooperate to limit technological or logistical tools of terrorists to prevent future 9/11 or Mumbai blasts.

-- Angsuman

> This sucks. Not sure what we can do.

In short cooperate :)

Convince Bush & Co. (Condi etc.) to stop aiding countries which actively sponsor terrorism. The same terrorists who target's India also targets US, UK and other countries of the world. Let the war against terrorism be truly without boundaries.

Robert, first up - the Indian government wants ISPs to block certain sites only but the ISPs have taken up to block the entire top level domain. If you read one of the links Brajesh mentioned, an official claims that the list of sites runs 22 pages, I'm guessing that they cannot be top level domains but specific sites only. That may also explain why some other blogging platforms like Wordpress are still accessible.
Supporting Mihir, I do not understand how you conclude that blogs being blocked or any sites being blocked will encourage people to immigrate - they'd be intelligent enough to use proxies like most of them are doing so now.

Scoble, you should probably visit India before judging her. So also the rest of the countries you keep mentioning :)

Met: I've been to China. I'm planning a trip to India soon (probably in September).

> I’m planning a trip to India soon (probably in September).

Welcome. Business or pleasure?

Robert -

What places do you plan to visit in India. I am sure you will blog more about it later, just curious :)

Mihir, what places SHOULD I visit.

This will be for business. Got invited to speak at a conference.

There are lots of good places to visit. The obvious ones are Taj Mahal, Red Fort, India Gate, Qutub Minar, and other historic places in North India (near New Delhi).

Mumbai (west coast) has some great places as well - again most of them are historic. Elephanta Caves and Gateway of India. Just remember not to say the word 'Bombay' if you see anyone carrying saffron flags around ;) If you are fond of coffee, don't forget to visit Barista, Cafe Coffee Day, and Cafe Mocha - they are coffee chains in India, and you will find them in most cities.

I have never been to Hyderabad and only been once to Bangalore (for a business trip), but I hear that there are lots of cool stuff there. Not to mention, you will see Microsoft India and other IT/software/tech companies there as well ;)

Don't forget to visit Goa - it is a beautiful beach city! Lots of foreign tourists visit Goa. Casinos are beaches make a good combination I guess!

For shopping, Mumbai and Delhi are great. You will find almost everything in these two places (likely cheaper than U.S. too).

Kerala (South India) has some really good places. Coconut Lagoon is a hotel in the middle of a river- very very beautiful and calm.

I am sure other readers have more places to add. I am from Mumbai, and I know tons of good places to visit there. Do add photos and videos from your trip here :)

Robert, the U.S. House passed H.R. 4411. This makes it legal for the government to order any ISP in the US to block certain domains/sites.. I wonder if this only meant for gambling sites or will the law be abused too :)-

there so much for freedom of speech and the NSA controvsery !!

Robert, I'm not saying people don't immigrate because of the freedom the US affords them. I'm not suggesting it's a two-valued proposition. I'm simply positin that economic freedom is likely the major primary driver for immigration to the US. The freedoms we have in the country allow for more economic opportunities than those in less free societies. I don't think people immigrate here simply because we allow them to freely speak their mind. I'm sure you don't think that either. Nothing is more liberating than being in control of your own economic destiny. (Just ask anyone that has been on welfare)

Hey,

Now blogspot and other sites are working fine here. Thanks to all blogers and media support :-)

ps: I heard a 2nd Barcamp in Bangalore is on its way. You may consider particiapting barcamp too ;-)

I heard from friends that its working for only few ISPs...Sify has'nt lifted the BAN yet.

Now that the bans are lifted by some ISPs in India, let me give some more food for thought. Read this:

What is common between U.S. Army and Al-qaeda? They both kill people! This sucks. Not sure what we can do about this?

Did this sound chiche? This is how baseless the comments were. The questions is - what is the motive? If you remove motive from the action, the actions sound equivalent. The motive of U.S. army is to curtail terror, while that of Al-Qaeda is to spread terror - NOW that sounds better, doesn't it?

Similarly, the motive of the Indian government was to curb terrorists group from communicating. That does NOT suck. If the motive was to curtail freedom of speech and open dialog, that would suck. China, apparently does not allow blog sites to disallow open dialog (I can not personally speak for Pakistan, since I do not know). So blocking blogspot is just as common between India and China, as killing people is between U.S. and Al-Qaeda - you make the distinction.

**** Please read ****

Government issued statement that particular blogs are being kept under survillence as Mumbai incident creators used this mode of communication (so Govt says). The whole problem erupted when Govt instructed ISPs to monitor and identify physically the location of people accessing the specific blogs. ISPs in turn blocked all the blogs under blogspot.com instead of ones specifically. Why blame the Govt if our own IT guys played black hand. When things were sorted out, most of the blogs under blogspot.com came out of ban. When media asked aboutwhich blogs are banned/kept under survillence, Govt refused citing people accessing will be forewarned. Makes sense it to me. I am willing to give up my freedom for few days. Atleast its not censorship or heavy handedness in my humble view.

Indian ISPs are now lifting bans on domains like blogspot.com typepad.com (see http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/19blogs.htm) although there still 17 websites being blocked.
The rediff.com report has details about the sites.

Well cyber censorship is not an *Asian* only.Many news are not accessible on American media and they are being censored.For instance recent Lebonan-Israel conflict.

Few of my friends who are in India do happen to blog and these days they are not been able to even post because blogger itself is blocking diffrent blogs :)