Blocked Blogs

Date: Jul 18, 2006

Blocked Blogs

Date: Jul 18, 2006

I'm an avid blogger and make a lot of effort in making my blog page interesting to a lot of people. If there is anything in my blog, including the latest post that I put up yesterday which you in India cannot access (I can access it from here in the US), you will see that India stands out well. We were treated to such a welcome at an aircraft company, that they flew us more than a third of the way across the US in an executive jet and when we landed and taxied to their facility, they had the Indian flag flying in our honour. I have even posted pictures of this event.

Unfortunately, the Government of India, in its extensive wisdom, has chosen to stifle all blogspots including the domain that hosts mymysore.com bloggers. Their contention is that there have been anti-national sites, especially since the Mumbai blasts that have appeared on blogger's domain. I fail to see why when there is a headache, the Government thinks it is necessary to cut off the head itself. In this case, the headache was not caused by the head at all.

There are reportedly many anti India terrorist websites that are functioning. The GOI does nothing about it. What it does is block all the millions of harmless blog sites that merely served as a windown to one's life or viewpoint. Is this an attempt to stifle free speach? Is this truly democratic? Is this paranoia at it's best? Bloggers in India are going to unite and get this redressed. If not, it is only time that people will find other ways to access these sites.

Date: Jul 18, 2006

http://www.rediff.com/netguide/2003/apr/03block.htm
http://itatonline.com/pages/how_to_visit_blocked_sites.htm
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/h/4807
http://kryptonian-x.blogspot.com/2005/05/proxy-bypasser.html
http://www.publicproxyservers.com/page1.html

Date: Jul 19, 2006

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/are-we-heading-towards-emergency--ii/16034-11.html

Date: Jul 19, 2006

Its OK if I am the torch bearer for all bloggers on mymysore.com but the latest on ndtv website says that the government is now severely embarrassed. They only wanted four objectionable blogs to be blocked. Its like I said before, cut off the head if you get a headache! Oops, we goofed up. Now lets start blaming each other. According to ndtv, DOT is blaming DTI who is in turn balming some one else and it goes around like a merry go round in a Banana Republic. Now, they want to unblock as soon as possible. Don't hold your breath on this one, you may go blue in the face! Here's the ndtv link:

http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?slug=Blocking+sites%3A+Govt+fights+to+save+face&id=90401&category=National

Date: Jul 19, 2006

Here's another link, questioning how come the Internet Service Providers (ISP's) blocked everything enmasse, if it was meant only for barring four sites? Lame excuse that the ISP's give is that there was "lack of clarity". What a bunch of lies and what spineless creatures these ISP's for not coming together to protect free speach. they want to be part of the medium without taking any responsibility. Only in it for the money. Spineless indeed.

http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=RTI&slug=Bloggers+file+RTI+over+ban&id=90384&callid=1&category=National

Date: Jul 19, 2006

For all those who don't know what a blog is and who can't figure out what all this shoo sha is about, TOI online has this story which explains everything:

http://o3.indiatimes.com/onepointoh

Date: Jul 20, 2006

I thought that the controversy of bannıng some bolgs had been cleared. Looks lıke ıt ıs not. The convener of SAJA (South Asıan Journalıst assocıatıon) I had herad that the government had banned only one ıtem whıch was extremely derogatory towards one of the prophets of one of the relıogıons and they rıghtly thought that ıt would ıncıte cıvıl unrest. Unfortunately theır request was mısınterpreted as bannıng several sıtes. Thıs clarıfıcatıon was gıven by Indıan consulate of New Yrok. If thıs ıs true, then we need not worry about ıt. In fact we should apprecıate the speed wıth whıch the government acted. The last thıng we need ıs some cıvıl unrest ın the name of any relıgıon. There are enough fundamentalısts lookıng for any lame excuse to ıncıte people.

Date: Jul 20, 2006

Banning some blogs would have been fine. No one wants the bad guys to go out with their hate messages and propogating hate. Thats not what happened Dr. Shenoy. What happened was that millions of innocent bloggers and their sites were shut down, including all of us. How does the government justify gagging millions? The fact that the know-it-alls in the establishment actually did not know it all and cannot actually prevent access by blocking only specific sites and they have realised it. We have a high tech president and a "respected, educated" PM and supposedly an IT Minister running the country. Pathetic.

They are going to, as reported by Indian media, and the operative word is "going to" reverse what they have done. Has not happened yet and its been three days now. Meanwhile, they just went and upset a whole bunch of people around India, millions as I said earlier. 38 million internet userss supposedly in india and supposedly 25% of them blogging! You got a lot of upset, innocent people who did nothing even remotely anti national. Thats the reason why bthey are reversing the order. It snot a small group of people hammering away at their compuetsr with nothing to do, most of the bloggers are very well educated and are gainfully employed.

As I said earlier, the government is not to blame entirely. In its good efforts to block the bad guys (and only the bad guys, mind you), they asked the ISP's to do it and the spineless Indian ISP's just went about blocking all and sundry. I hold the ISP's responsible in equal measure. Either the Indian ISP's don't have the technology or they don't have spine or both.

Date: Jul 20, 2006

If the Italian decides to provoke us bloggers by banning blogs, I would like to play a Zidane. And, I won't seek apologies later. Bloggers, unite! Let us all show the government that it has to grow.

Date: Jul 20, 2006

Ha! Now the government has announced (Rediff claims) that the blockage of the blogs will be lifted within 48 hours. Same article says that the Government has given a notice to the ISP's as to why action should not be taken against it!!!!

Ha! Double Ha! Some bloggers have reported that Sify, BSNL and VSNL has already lifted the block. This is how public opinion works. This is how democracy survives. Poor ISP's can't sue the GOI! Serves them right.

Date: Jul 20, 2006

Forgot to provide the link to the above news:

http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/20dot.htm?q=np&file=.htm