India blocks Blogspot, Typepad (updated)
For all the talk of India’s freedom and democracy, the Indian government has apparently just banned access to all of Blogspot and Typepad. For shame. Blogspot- and Typepad-hosted blogs are inaccessible from my Bombay ISP and many others and seem to be blocked at the Airtel Internet backbone in Delhi. Geocities is reportedly blocked as well.
‘Somebody must have blocked some sites. What is your problem?’
– Gulshan Rai,
CERT-IN director
I called up a senior Spectranet official who confirmed that the Department of Telecommunications (not the Ministry of IT) had on Friday sent a list of sites to be blocked. This is the same list, it seems, that MTNL’s Sharma was telling me about. This list is not public. It deserves to be. [Link]
… Spectranet’s Delhi representative at the National Internet exchange of India, told this reporter that, on July 15, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had sent ISPs a list of sites to be blocked. R H Sharma, senior engineer with MTNL, said the list ran into some 22 pages… “The list is confidential and I can’t make it public…” [Link]
When it comes to protecting your rights, the Indian government is about as responsive as the U.S.:
CERT-IN’s [Computer Emergency Response Team -- India] Director, Dr Gulshan Rai, said he was unaware of the problem… “Somebody must have blocked some sites. What is your problem?“… [Link]
As the world’s back office, for India to blame overzealous techies would hardly be credible. It’s not yet clear which blogs the government was targeting, but banning all of Blogspot is nothing less than outright repression — mimicking the tactics Pakistan used to shut down discussion of Danish cartoons critical of Islam. India is now in the august company of some of the world’s least free nations:
India has clearly joined the Internet filtering club of China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan… [Link]
In March this year, Pakistan blocked all of Blogspot. A proxy set up to help Pakistani bloggers is now being pressed into use across the border:
… all blogspot blogs can still be accessed using ‘www.pkblogs.com/blogname’ as a [URL]. [Link]
In ‘03, India blocked all of Yahoo Groups, trying to shut down a forum for separatists:
The directive, issued by the Department of Telecommunication under the Ministry, was aimed at blocking a discussion group called `kynhun’, allegedly run by Naga insurgents. However, service providers operating the gateways seem to have blocked the entire site. [Link]
“I can’t stop laughing at CERT-IN! … our own government agency (which is supposed to be full of smart guys from blue-chip universities) behaves like a stupid dumb pumpkin-faced potbellied dunghead…” [Link via SM]
These repeated incidents are also a cautionary tale about the dangers of relying on Web apps centralized on a small handful of domains. What’ll you do when your government blocks Gmail?
See also: Neha Viswanathan, India Uncut, Labnol (and again), Sepia Mutiny, Bloggers Collective, Kiran Jonnalagadda, Desipundit, Dina Mehta, Vulturo, Writing Cave, Mridula, Techborg, Kitabkhana, Digg, Boing Boing, SiliconBeat
Update: More sites ordered blocked by the government, including Hindutva ones, surprisingly.
- www.hinduunity.org
- www.hinduhumanrights.org
- www.princesskimberley.com
- www.bloodspot.com
- www.dalitstan.org
- www.clickatell.com
- www.blogspot.com
- www.geocities.com
- www.typepad.com [Link via Blog block wiki]
Some of the URLs are clearly wrong, though — they’re expired domains redirecting to businesses.
Update 2: Coverage in the NYT, Business Standard and Outlook India.
Update 3: Rai is now blaming ISPs for using IP blocks on a multihomed domain rather than the more precise subdomain filtering:
“The order issued by the DoT has four blogs hosted on Blogspot.com… The order didn’t ask the whole site to be banned…” [Link]
More blocked sites:
Update 4: The blog ban will be reversed. The government is pointing the finger at private ISPs.
on Monday, July 17th, 2006, 7:07 pm in Blog, Politics › 
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Brown brother Manish, you have converted Amrit Hallan into Uma. I wonder if it’s Uma MD or Uma Bharti :)
Fixed, thanks. Nice legwork on this issue, btw.
Thanks. No legwork, only phone work :)
Kudos to you, Shivam for fighting the good fight! All I can say at the moment is WTF!!??!!
Manish, just a small correction: my last name is spelt “Jonnalagadda”. Two Ds there.
Fixed, sorry.
Hmm…
ISP staff in India is so lazy.. instead of blocking 10-100 url they just blocked entire domain. I hope this will clear out sooner or later.
“Who’s the moron who banned us?”
The post title is ripped off from samudaya.org, which is a pro-democracy Internetwork in Nepal and around the world. However, it might be time for many bloggers who write about desi topics to adopt it as a slogan because a lot of us are currently not …
[...] BoingBoing, Sepiamutiny, Ultrabrown, and a bunch of other blogs are reporting that the Indian Government has blocked access to Blogspot, and TypePad blogs, in a vain effort to stop the terrorists from communicating. [...]
Indian govt and majority of the market still dont get the concept of web 2.0 or community websites! This reminds me of the arrest of Avnish Bajaj because some guy sold some porno MMS on eBay/Bazee! knee jerk reaction of the poor ignorant politicians if you ask me! :-(
sad reality http://www.desihub.com/blogs/page/mihir/20060717#indian_market_government_not_yet
It’s true, I am Cat Stevens, but we are not a superpower
I know this is a free speech issue for many Indian bloggers, but Anand’s extensive investigations lead me to the conclusion that all the blogs on Blogspot blocked by the Indian government are all terrorist blogs.Anand’s research also leads …
[...] Manish , Dina Mehta and Amit Varma [...]
[...] In the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the Indian government issued a directive to internet service providers to start blocking sites hosted by Google’s Blogger service, TypePad and Geocities. The alleged reason for the block: terrorists have been using the internet to communicate. We shudder at the thought that India’s intelligence services will eventually discover that terrorists also use telephones, national postal services and pencils. UltraBrown offers the following comment: As the world’s back office, for India to blame overzealous techies would hardly be credible. It’s not yet clear which blogs the government was targeting, but banning all of Blogspot is nothing less than outright repression  mimicking the tactics Pakistan used to shut down discussion of Danish cartoons critical of Islam. India is now in the august company of some of the world’s least free nations [...]
Some twenty sites are blocked in India and people started making nonsense by saying blah.. blah.. blah.., comparing India with China, with countries of Middle-East and even with North Korea too. This is as kike as most of the stupid ‘breaking-news’ come every hour on news channel containing no valuable content.
As working as the fifth pillar of Indian Democracy, we should be more cautious while reacting on the decision of the government. Comparing Indian democracy with autocratic countries is an extreme step. We should completely avoid these kinds of blogging. People are in a hurry to react and taking no time to literally abusing the step taken by the government, which yet not be released officially.
On the other hand, the government should take cautious steps to block some websites, and it should release the proofs or basis of blocking. In spite of giving directives to ISPs, they might ask Google to do that.
Anyway, I am requesting the respected bloggers to stop criticizing the government move so harshly and try to find out the major cause behind that. We should provide some suggestive measures in front of the government to have an eye before taking such kind of step.
Since you don’t seem to have grasped that over half the blogs in the world have been blocked, isn’t your comment moot?
Many of the blocked writers earn money through their blogs via ads and freelance work. Say the government shutters your store on a Friday. Wouldn’t you be in a hurry four days later ot get your livelihood back?
[...] Just a couple of days back (or is it yesterday?), the Indian blogosphere, and to an extent the international blogosphere, started simmering with the news that the Indian government was clamping down on several “radical” sites - most notable among them being Blogger, Geocities (and even Typepad it seems). [...]
[...] In an attempt to fight back some Indian bloggers have set up proxy ways of accessing their sites to overcome accessibility. In addition, they are questioning their reliance on using common web applications offered by companies such as Blogspot, Geocities and Typepad. [...]
Crazy! How is hinduhumanrights.org a hate site? Its certainly right-of-center but so what? If anyone has a different take, I’d like to hear it.
If true, this is indeed terrible news. It is a huge victory for the terrorists and I just hope the government will quickly reverse itself.
What Can India Learn From China?
If You Can’t Beat Blogs, Block Them Global Voices reports the blockage of Blogspot/TypePad-hosted blogs in India. The official response is Somebody must have blocked some sites. What is your problem? Mdeii wholeheartedly supports the Indian nanny:I wh…
The incompetence of the Indian government
Man, this really makes me squirm in embarassment. The Indian government is actually mispelling the websites it wishes to block. Forget the really obvious incorrectly blocked websites like Princess Kimberly. Where the government really screws up i ……
Does anyone here agree with me that bloggers are way too self-promoted-hoping -to-be-self-important people??? If a handful of sites do get blocked whats the big deal anyway??? It wasnt as if these sites were promoting/doing something worthwhile in the first place. Whats the whole hulaboo about it anyway??? every blogger worth his blogo-salt will now write in a piece on the blog-blockade thing, this would go on for the next month or so and then once the issue has shifted below the publics’ tiny horizon-of-view, its back to usual business. So whats the big deal?? Why clamour for all the attention anytime something miniscule-y interesting comes up in the indian blogosphere?? And why in God’s name set up wikis and forums and yahoo groups and what not clamouring for god-forsaken attention?? do something useful would I gues be a much better motto.
My take is here.
How about over half the blogs in existence?
Do you always write entire essays on things you failed to grasp from the get-go?
ha ha..looks like we’ll not see “jhantu” anytime soon.
btw Manish..do you know the meaning of the word “jhaantu” ? ;-)
Posted from SepiaMutiny:
The fact is, the internet is one of the most effective ways that terrorists communicate. Those who watch U.S. news know how many times our govt. gets tipped off or finds out about terror groups by scavaging the ‘net.
“I bet none of the idiots protesting against the ban ever did read what some Muslims write on the internet.
If they did, they wouldn’t react this way. The blog will be temporary. You can get back writing about the progress of your ingrown toe nails another day.
In the meantime, if this is what it takes for the Indian government to DO THEIR JOB. Let them do it.
I’m an American, born and raised, and I would pretty much accept anything our government would do if it would help capture those responsible for the WTC attacks.
This is not a game. This is a War on Terror. It will be uncomfortable at times, but DEAL WITH IT.
I understand some say that legitimate blogspots are being banned. My response to this is to have some faith in the Indian government. The Indian government does not have a history of censoring internet sites (although they should… look up some of the things that are written in dalitstan.org, you can view CACHED copies using a Google search). If the Indian government has not gotten involved in the past, it means that this time something genuinely must be there for them to do this.
Give them time, and be patient. But most of all, be supportive.
I can’t believe the backlash over a FCKING blogspot. They are so mundane and trivial for the most part.”
[...] The government’s list of hate-sites is another such example. [...]
Hello,
Just wanted to let you know I linked to your blog in my column on CBSNews.com today. Thanks!
If you want to take a look, here’s the link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/25/blogophile/main1832268.shtml
Thanks,
Melissa
I think porn sites should be blocked non others. Some of them are really useful some time by anyone.
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To surf from a proxy site is an old trick. There’s shadowsurf anonymizer proxy, secret source anonymous proxy, proxytrix proxy which I use, to get around sites that the admins have blocked at work by using Squid proxy.
It’s funny, using a proxy to get around one.
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