Blogspot blocked in India - updated
UPDATE 2
http://mutiny.wordpress.com/2006/07/17/blog-blackout/
UPDATE 1
It’s official folks! The Airtel Tech Support guys called me last night and informed me that indeed they’ve received communications from DoT to block all the blogspot sites! They cited some security issue.
Going by this logic, it looks like since the terrorists also use Highways, Railways and Air transport for travel and for carrying out their Anti-India activities, its only a matter of time before they are blocked as well.
And the DoT has clearly indicated that they could not care less about the thousands of bloggers. Apparently they’d issued this directive on Friday. It’s tuesday now and
am yet to see even a terse official communication from DoT.
Those of you who are addicted to my ranting, by any chance can also look for
http://prabukarthik.wordpress.com
Indian ISPs, apparently under a directive from http://www.cert-in.org.in , have decided to block access to all blogspot URLs. The funny thing is, we can all access our blogger accounts, post new blogs, edit existing blogs etc but we can’t read any blog in a blogspot URL. Click here for more
I dont know what next.
How about banning Google in this information age?
The Government by this single act has demonstrated that it has as much respect for Freedom of speech as the Taliban have for civilized societies.
Make no mistake folks, the present Goverment under the well educated Mr Manmohan Singh is no different from Musharaff, China, and other stone age places when it comes to Freedom of Speech.
Sigh!!
July 17th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
yes it’s true, my cousin faced and facing the same problem, WTH going on there ?
By any chance can they block the terrorist ? ashamed…
July 17th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
Temporarily?
July 18th, 2006 at 7:26 am
oh damn i was wondering y thers a drop in my visitorship - whuaaaaaaaaaaa not fair its just not fair
July 18th, 2006 at 8:04 am
mutiny.in says it’s just a temporary blackout and should be lifted in a few days. Apparently a terrorist group is using blogs to communicate. Can we please not blow this issue up but behave in a mature manner.
July 18th, 2006 at 8:14 am
http://mufasasden.blogspot.com/2006/07/pissed-at-indian-bloggers.html
July 18th, 2006 at 8:39 am
srikanth,
nice question.
casement,
maybe. what pisses me off is the attitude not to tell the people thru the media…
visithra,
lets wait and c
karthik S,
may i ask you one thing. Since when did Mutiny become the offical communicator for the Govt of India?
Why cant the bloody bureaucrasts say this officially?
Did you get a chance to see the response of one Gulshan Rai for Shivam Vij??
What kinda maturity was that??
Why should thousands of innocent bloggers should be under the impression that something’s wrong with ISP, Blogger is down etc etc for the last 3/4 days??
And its not like what mufasasden has written. The tech support at Airtel specifically told me that they’ve been asked to block all blogspot domains whatsoever and they dont have a clue till when…
July 18th, 2006 at 8:43 am
And it takes plain naivette to be under the assumption that those terror outfits does not know the way around to continue reading blogs!!
if i can still read blogs albeit in an indirect way they can do as well, which implies they r are still communicating!
July 18th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
PK oru chinna sandhegam, why is the proxy setup to access the blogs from the blocked countries called, pkblogs? Adhukkum neenga dhaan owner-aa periya aalaa irupeenga polarukke
July 18th, 2006 at 3:08 pm
Well said Karthi.. there are thousands of mobile phones (prepaid) to be bought and used and thrown away. probably they use dead letter drops, who knows.. why to stop Bloggers ? Pure nonsense.. and, who are the CERT guys ?
July 18th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
C this
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=134366
July 18th, 2006 at 9:42 pm
PK,
You had mentioned in one of your earlier post that NRI’s would cry wolf..so I didn’t express my feelings for that post..but here. I can’t help it.!
This is a shame to Democracy, We live ( Not me…atleast for now) in a country which has been called the greatest Democracy on earth..which IMHO sucks.
I’ve always maintained and will do so..until things change..that India is a Democracy only on Paper.
This is a clear example - Freedom of speech curtailed, freedom of expression Gone..!
Like many have written in their blogs, why not ban everything, because terrorists will have to anyway use everything Bus,train,roads, Restaurants..etc.
With Idiots ruling the country..what else to expect? But then where are the so called Wise men..didn’t they advise the Govt. against doing this? Did everyone become idiots?
Ofcourse this is not going to affect the common man..so…he as usual goes with his life, waiting for his FREE TV.!
God Bless India.!
July 18th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
WA,
ROTFL:)) gud one!
(ellam nera kodumai.. irunga ungalai aprom gavanichukaren;p)
deepak,
naatile buthisaalgial rombo adhigama ayitaanga da!
fathima,
the thanks for the link!:)
narayanan sir,
yep i’ve always been protective of india when it comes to bashing from NRIs.. but sadly looks like i am on a losing cause…
July 19th, 2006 at 10:36 am
How about this news item
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1773589.cms?headline=No~way~you~can~block~blogs!
It says clearly and I quote
“As things turned out, it was an obscure blog on the Blogspot network that government was targeting as part of its regular drive at censoring unpleasant voices.
Internet Service Providers who received the directive, though, simply banned the entire network.”
There u go all u whiners….
July 19th, 2006 at 10:55 am
karthik s
>>how many in the Govt. do u think know the extent of blog users ? In actuality there are what 10,000 blog users ?
If they dont know abt blogs.. its not for the blggers to be blamed.
there is only one HINDU. shall we just go ahead and block its office tomorrow without giving any explanation or offcial comment under some obscure provisions??
>>You are a bureaucrat. You get a message that terrorists are using blogs to communicate. Will u or wont u monitor ?
who said blogs should not be monitored. there’s a world of difference between blocking it and monitoring it..
cellphones in JK. Pray tell me they would use the same logic in mumbai and block mobile phones too??
that would be very interesting..
and also that since some blasts have occured in trains how abt blocking that too??
dont u think collaborating with blogger/google would’ve been much more fruitful rather than a blanker ban??
yeah right we are all whiners. sitting in the US u r entitled to such grand opinions we are not bothered about that.
if one of yr daily utility has bene blocked and if some bureaucrat thinks so low of u as to not even bother responding.
then you would know what we are going through
and yeah add to it its all a futile exercise as we can still blog only that reading is a bit more difficult.
July 19th, 2006 at 11:42 am
The Govt. believes that blogspot is being used for terrorist communication it’s blocking it. Other websites are turning up okay. Let us stop ridiculous comparisons with water and utilities.
And yes Govts will stop all trains if it believes they have terrorists in them. US Govt. had authorized the USAF to shoot down any plane, commercial or civilian without any question if it refused to obey instructions or if they came closer to important installations in Washington DC.
As for as me sitting in US really makes no difference to the facts. Comparing blogspot with utilities is just inane. Isn’t banning Da Vinci Code the same ? I hear no blogger jumping up and down on it. Wasn’t Satanic Verses banned ? No one whimpered.
In what way is this different ? If Govt. can do those they can very well do this. In USA they have a very good saying and it goes something like this
They took away the jews and I did not speak.
They took away the abortionists and I did not speak.
They took away the libertarians and I did not speak.
They took away the gays and homosexuals and I did not speak.
Then they took me away and there was no one to speak.
BTW What do u say about ToI article about over zealous ISPs ? I hope it’s not another “Is ToI representative of Govt.” type response.
July 19th, 2006 at 11:59 am
karthik S
first of all, when there is a govt action,it shud have the bals to say accessing such sites like blogspot is prohibited and illegal for whatever reason thr official communication..
that wud ensure atleast a section of bloggers from accessing the sites due to legal issues..
i wud think twice abt accessing blogspot from office. fo eg.
bfore deciding whether my anology of cell usage with net is insane, tell me why its wrong. in what way its different??
>>And yes Govts will stop all trains if it believes they have terrorists in them..
Cool. we have enough evidence of terrosists in train. why dont i someone see blocking trains then??
Regarding yr Toi article
when the overzealous ISPs were contacted they told that they were directed to block all blogs..
but if we need to counter them, we need some communication from the government. Dont u think so??
I’ve taken enough bullshit like assymmetry of information, hypocrites, blah blah..
ets not get pesonal here.
this is my blog ad i’ve raised my concerns. u’ve raised yr points too. whether i agree is a difft issue.
to summarise, the whole exercise of blocking blogs by is futile whichever way u look at it.
i am not going to comment any further on this…
July 19th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
I agree it’s ur blog. I dont think I said anything personal about u. I apologize if u felt so. I will delete my comments.
July 19th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
karthik s
i’m not asking u to delete comments..
but if u do it on yr own.. then its yr prerogative…
its not got into anything personal so far and i shud thank u for it. no apologies needed.
but it looked t it will snowball even from my side thats why i said
i will not comment further on this..
to each his own opinion..
Peace!
June 12th, 2007 at 4:55 am
Manmohan is educated??? I thought he was only literate. How can a man in his 70s, who was once an IMF economist, an RBI Governor and a finance minister, and i now a “gooja-thookifying-dummy” for an Italian dull-head be educated??