More on this at the Bloggers Collective Google Group.
Some links
Protests by Bloggers, List of ISPs that seem to have blocked blogger
I see that a lot of people are getting here by googling for some variation of “How I can see my blogspot” – This is – how you can bypass the block.
Note – Updates are being added towards the end of the post. Please keep checking. I am including some government contacts in Update 10. Please contact them and ask them to release an official list of those sites that are on the list of blocked sites, or ask them if they would prefer a Right to Information application. Shivam posts on his experience – calling up a government official. For the lastest phone numbers of the powers be that in the Government please access them here.
…
Is Blogspot.com being blocked by one or two of the Indian ISPs? (I don’t want to cry wolf – but it appears to be a possibility.) Here’s a list of all (not sure) the ISPs in India.
From Mridula, who alerted me to her post.
I asked a few people who are from India and were available on Google chat that if they were facing the same problem? People in India that I contacted are facing it.
Now I know I am speculating but it makes me very very irritated to think that our government might be playing some hanky panky with blog sites? The other possibility is that Blogger messed it up only in India? I would love it if it is the second possibility but I think there is a very slim chance of that. I can only hope that there is an innocent explanation to it.
It’s completely possible that there is an explanation for this. Some local servers may be down. (Do they have local servers?) Blogger doesn’t hint at any status change. It may not be a cause for alarm. But I am concerned nevertheless. If you are on MTNL or Specranet in India, could you please let me know if blogspot.com has been blocked? In fact if you’re in India, can you please just let me know if you can access these sites? Thanks.
Update 1 – Dina (Bombay) confirms that she can access only her dashboard on Blogger. She even managed to post to a blog. However she cannot access Blogspot. She’s on Reliance Powersufer. Aparna (Calcutta) who is on BSNL can access both the sites.
Update 2 – Over IM, Mridula (Delhi) confirms that her ISP’s call centre stated that they have received a letter from the Government, hinting that it has something to do with the block. Dina called up her ISP’s call centre and they confirm that there is no blocking or filtering at their end.
Update 3 – Anupa on Sify.net and Rit on Airtel can access. Monica on Tata Indicom confirms that she can post and access Blogspot.com.
Update 4 - See comments for the list of ISPs that allow access or not. There is also another way to be sure about what is being blocked by your ISP. Angelo writes
Could you please paste your traceroutes in here for mumbaihelp.blogspot.com and for blogspot.com as well, thank you.
1) Go to Start
2) Click on Run
3) Type in: tracert blogspot.com
4) You should see something like:
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
5) Right click in the window, select all, and paste it in here as a comment.. then we could figure out where exactly the block is taking place at.
Note – Indian blogs are not being blocked. So you can access blogs on any other platform. It’s the domain blogspot.com that is being blocked.
If you are not able to access blogspot blogs, there could be other reasons. You may be having a problem with your connection or it could be a temporary issue. (Remember blogger goes down frequently.)
One way to be really sure is to go to http://pkblogs.com or via proxy (http://www.hidemyass.com/), and see if you can access.
Update 5 – In case you feel like asking Spectranet why exactly one cannot access Blogspot on their service – call +91 – (0)11 – 41612277.
Update 6 - Dina informs us that both Typepad.com and Blogspot.com domains appear to be inaccessible. Mridula confirms the same. Abi has called up the Spectranet call centre and receives a similar response to the one Mridula heard. Angelo got in touch with someone at Blogger.com, and there appears to have been no maintenance over the last few days that should affect access to blogspot blogs.
Update 7 – Some bloggers have written more about this. Amit at Digital Inspiration has a comprehensive post on the issue including ways to circumvent the block and Saket at Vulturo on India doing a Big Brother.
Update 8 – Peter has set up a wiki here – IF you cannot access blogspot domain (despite your connection being robust etc.) please go here and add details regarding your ISP and their contact details. Thanks also for publishing your tracert details here. They have been forwarded to someone at Blogger is looking into what the issue is.
Update 9 - Shivam has been doing some great work by calling up various people who need to be nudged. Here’s a link to his email on the group – Bloggers Collective.
Update 10 – The following people are a good place to get started off to get through the Indian Government Maze. One person who is accountable to you is Dr. Gulshan Rai (Exec Director). His phone numbers as listed by the government website are (Office: 91 -11-24363081), (Residence: 91-11-22323085) and his email is grai@eis.ernet.in
More phone numbers for the Department of IT can be found here.
If you want to seek information under the Right to Information, Shri BB Bahl is the Public Information Officer for Department of IT. Here is a very comprehensive guide to finding out more about blogs through the Right to Information Act. It even has a draft letter that you can send off.
Update 11 – Geocities also blocked? Mridula has a screenshot. Amit confirms that Airtel is blocking Blogspot.com and Geocities.com. Sify might have joined the bandwagon too.
Update 12 - List of ISPs that are blocking Blogspot.com. Some of them are also blocking Typepad.com and Geocities.com
Spectranet, MTNL, Airtel, Sify, Reliance Powersurfer, Exatt, Swiftmail, Incable, BSNL, VSNL and 7 Star Cable Service (which AFIK – has been bought over by VSNL).
Update 13 - Rediff has an article about this. BoingBoing makes a note of it. Chacko at the The Great Indian Mutiny gets a different story from his sources.
There is a crack down in place. IP numbers are being physically located and identified. All should come back to normal once this operation is over. There is no ban in place. Livejournal and Wordpress have been spared. No reason given.
Now I know you are not going to believe this, so I’m going to quote what she said, “This operation is limited to certain parts of India. Bloggers in Andaman, Nicobar and Lakhsadeep islands are not affected.” I thought she was joking but I didn’t hear the reciprocal laughter from the other end of the phone line.
I didn’t believe that and laughed for a full five minutes.
Update 14 - I am being superstitious. I didn’t want to stop at 13 updates. Oh well.
There is something so surprising about this act of censorship that I think we took a little time to react to it. In a sense I was as much part of the Pakistani group of bloggers who were reacting to a similar block, and at that time I think there was this sense that a government that isn’t voted in is not exactly going to respect online freedom. However, in the case of India there is a sense of “But we’re a democratic country.”
I am rabidly anti-censorship. Ultimately it’s about boundaries. If someone runs a hatespeech website, it is well within their right to. The minute they urge you to act on that hate – they infringe upon another’s rights. I know the lines are hard to draw. But any war against censorship cannot be partial. You cannot want censorship for one sort of content and ask for a no-glance policy on the other. Because to even make that distinction you will have to judge content, and assign values to it.
Coming to the issue of technology being used by terrorists. Now, technology has always been a cat and mouse game – with the identities of the cat and mouse being switched between the entities. The way to overcome the use of technology to harm XYZ’s interests is not to block the technology itself, but to use a higher variant of the technology to protect XYZ’s interests.
How you sell the sorrow of a block is an entirely different matter. You cannot tell a government that every point of view, as long as it doesn’t infringe upon someone else’s rights is legitimate. If on a website it says ABE is a community of idiots, it might provoke Ms. Spitter to go out and spit on ABE. If you’re ABE, the one who wronged you is not the website – but Ms. Spitter. (Again fine lines – provocation etc. I know.)
Tomorrow will the government decide that terrorists travel by cars, and therefore all petrol pumps must be shut? Or wait, you must show an Identity Card everytime you buy petrol? I remember linking to Anand’s post on how one of the direct fallouts of terrorism is the loss of individual liberty. That post was prophetic.
Update 15 - It’s still not clear if the government wanted a few blogspot blogs blocked (more likely) or wanted a blanket block. I’ve got a few mails about how http://pkblogs.com isn’t working right now. Interestingly it still works extremely well for me. Isn’t it wonderful how a gateway to circumvent censorship in Pakistan is being used by people in other countries? (Tsk. Especially India?)
Don’t lose heart though. There are other ways to read these blogs.
Another rant – but has anyone noticed how when India and China are compared by the bulging list of consultancies and Ibanks, it’s ultimately India’s context of democracy that is quoted as the tipping factor in the scales? One of the most obvious indicators these days is how much of the internet is censored. In a sense, it is a measurement of a country’s freedom of expression. (Or till recently, the country’s inability to handle matters of technology in some cases.)
Even if online censorship is no real indicator of freedom of expression, it is an easy one. It will be used by those who prefer investing in China. Because it speaks volumes about the sort of liberal values a country stands for. (Like I said – it could be misrepresentative. But whatever.) Never mind the fact that India can have free and fair elections. In the end, the venture capitalists maybe taking a very close look at what the IT policy of a country says about the country’s aspirations for its citizens, international relations and its economic future.
Update 16 - Because we all need a good laugh. Seriously!
Update 17 - I’ve done a post at Global Voices on the issue. Jason Goldman at Blogger Buzz who assured me today morning that there was no maintenance work going on at Blogspot, acknowledges the problem. Quite a few international bloggers have picked up the news. A good list of links available at DesiPundit.
Update 18 - Kiran makes some excellent points about moving forward. He puts together an action plan on what can be done. At this point, I suppose it’s about being able identify immediate and strategic needs.
At a more immediate level, we need to ensure that bloggers in India are able to circumvent the block, not just using temporary means, but get more comfortable using tools that work on both protecting a person’s privacy, and sidestepping the government’s foolishness. In simple terms – online outreach.
The other immediate task is to ping the Govenrment with whatever resources we have at hand, and question this act of censorship.
I’ve heard in some circles that this is not being seen as censorship. Since I don’t feel like linking to an mp3 of a wakeup call let me write this in caps – this is CENSORSHIP. If this isn’t censorship, I don’t know what it is. Please lets not fool ourselves into believing that the governemnt has done this for our benefit. When people burn entire libraries down, it’s not becasue of the content, but the “possibility of content”. Because they fear being criticized.
More strategic needs – looking at Censorship as a whole. We’ve become relatively complacent in India. About how there is no censorship. Or that the state is at the most the eater of Bribes. Our mai-baap relationship with the Government ensures that we never really enter a more accountable relationship with the State. Irrespective of the content, censorship is indicative of fear. And of insulting citizens. That people cannot determine what is good for them.
If one really does propose that terrorists use blogs to communicate, it smells like crap. If they use such a public forum – monitor the forum for God’s sake. Keep an eye on it. The government can keep an eye on anything that is in the public domain. At this point, it is vital to find partners within India and outside who are working on issues of censorship. This is NOT about blocking a few sites. It is about the state telling you what to read, and what to think. It’s one of your fundamental rights. If you are not keen on protecting this one, chances are the state will assume you are not too keen on others either.
So, regardless of whether you are a blogger yourself. Regardless of whether you can blog through proxifiers, or access blogs by hopping over IPs. You may personally dislike blogs because you think it’s a waste of time. You may be of the opinion that people should go find a job instead of blogging. Regardless of all that – censorship is an issue because it is a matter of your fundamental right.
Update 19 - Mainstream Media/ Press coverage here.
Update 20 - You know what really worries me? When I see stuff like this. A poll on NDTV that asks if the block is justified or not. One third respodents appear to have said “Yes”. What is even more worrisome? The poll results will be used repeatedly on air today as a barometer of what “people want”.
Gentle Readers – Please do go and make amends.
Update 21 - It’s great to see mainstream media pick up the issue up. But for God’s sake – someone use the word censorship. The reason why websites need to be unblocked is not because the content on blogs is harmless. We know that blogs are about looking at our split ends, and inspecting toenails. Don’t remind us how insignificant we are. Please. :)
Regardless of how harmless we are, we’d like to be read.
Update 22 - Kamla does a great podcast with four different people. (Disclosure – I am one of them.) She covers the block, how it was became an issue, if it’s censorship, the technical aspects of it and the work arounds.
Update 23 - The fine folks who work relentlessly to circumvent the ban on accessing blogspot blogs in Pakistan, have released details of another gateway so people in India have easy access to blogspot blogs.
Yasir Memon & Naveed Memon have come yet again to save the blogging community from the douldrums to have launched Inblogs.net which is similar to pkblogs but more suited for the Indian traffic.
Update 24 - Julien Pain from the Internet Freedom Desk at RSF, responding to an email writes
We called the Cert In and we sent them an e-mail asking them to lift the blockage of all blogging platerforms. So far, we haven’t issued a public statement because we believe this blockage is mainly due to an inappropriate technical decision. So we hope they will take action soon to solve the problem.
But if they don’t do that in the next couple of days, we’ll issue a statement condemning a case a censorship.
As a response to this comment on my blog – Of course there is no ban. It’s only a block on reading content. Whether because of inefficiency or incompetency, net result is that people in India cannot access certain sites.
However, for the government to release ANY list of websites to be blocked. I do not want to be told by the government what information I can and should digest. I think that impinges on my rights. The very rights the government is supposed to protect. I am anti-censorship. Funnily, I’ve heard from bloggers in all these states except for the Union Territory of Pondicherry. It’s precisely the fact that the government REFUSES to communicate that worries me even more. I never compared this to Tiananmen Square Massacre, however, if you must – the similarity is that the government doesn’t acknowledge the issue.
One instance of impingement is not better or worse than the other. However, I suggest you very carefully go through the post and the comments before alleging anything. I did not compare this to the Indian Emergency. But in the larger scheme of things – censorship is always bad news. And small blocks lead to some very big smelly drains.
Update 25 - I just did a brief piece for Guardian Blogs.
Update 26 - How the Government makes life more expensive for you. Or disguises censorship. Kiran just pointed to an article that indicates that Skype and other VoIP may have a tough time operating in India. Why? Because the Government is going to make ISPs pay for a service they can offer free. Obviously the ISPs would argue that anybody else then will also have to pay.
The ISPs are forced into a license regime situation – and pass on their disadvantages to other services. But please – don’t forget that it’s the Government that started it.
Update 27 - The Indian Consulate in New York offers an explanation.
The matter was immediately taken note of by our CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) and the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) was informed of it. The DOT took up the matter forthwith with the search engines and instructions were also issued to all Internet providers to block the two impertinent pages. Because of a technological error, the Internet providers went beyond what was expected of them which in turn resulted in the unfortunate blocking of all blogs. Department of Telecommunications have now clarified the issue and the error is being rectified and it is expected that normalcy in respect of blogs will soon be restored.
In a way one is grateful that the ISPs are incompetent, or this a tiny block may have gone completely un-noticed. Like when a book goes missing in a library, you never know why – but burn the library down, and the smoke talks too much.
Update 28 -
Peter links to a scanned version of the ACTUAL document that went out to the ISPs and Rediff tells us that the block on blogs (no, not the other sites) will be lifted in 48 hours plus notes on the kind of websites that have been blocked.
Update 29 - BSNL and VSNL appear to be letting their users access blogspot blogs now. I don’t see a cause to celebrate yet. (Though I wish to do a thumping handshake with all my blog mates for getting together to gather so much media and government attention!)
ISPs haven’t been asked to unblock all sites – merely comply only with the select list. Censorship is still on. What puzzles me is this – so is the issue one of “As long as you don’t censor what I say – I am okay with censorship.” What about your right to access somebody else’s work? Even if ONE website is blocked – the government is denying you – your right to access something already in the public domain.
I may not be updating this post much anymore – because it looks like the focus needs to shift cyber-censorship in India. Some immediate needs appear to have been addressed – now off to the long haul.
Posted on July 15th, 2006 by Neha Viswanathan
Filed under: Blogs, India
Neha … I’m on Reliance Powersurfer – and since yesterday afternoon, all blogspot blogs have been blocked. I can still log into blogger and post though. So weird. We must make an issue of this. Thanks for posting on it.
[...] If you cannot access blogspot.com and are in India, can you please head over here, and just tell me if you can access it and what ISP you are on? [...]
Neha: No problem with VSNL so far. I suppose if the govt wants to do something, this would be the first ISP to take action. Anyway, will keep updating.
If this is true, it is certainly bad news as a lot of blogs in India are hosted on Blogger.com
Looking at the comments, I guess only very few ISPs are blocking blogspot.com – it works for me on Airtel and BSNL.
However, it doesn’t look like the Ministry is involved as in that case, BSNL would have been the first company to block blogspot.com
Neha, how about starting an online petition ?
If this is true, it is certainly bad news as a lot of blogs in India are hosted on Blogger.com
Looking at the comments, I guess only very few ISPs are blocking blogspot.com – it works for me on Airtel and BSNL.
However, it doesn’t look like the Ministry is involved as in that case, BSNL would have been the first company to block blogspot.com
Neha, how about starting an online petition ?
Hello,
I just saw this post on desipundit and came here. I think all Indian blogs are down from last night. Blogger has no downtime notice on its site but I think no indian blogs from India can be accessed. However, I can acces http://acorn.nationalinterest.in
I do not know what the fuck is going on.
for those who can’t access blog.. ot it isn’t opening up.. could you please paste your traceroutes in here for mumbaihelp.blogspot.com and for blogspot.com as well, thank you.
1) go to Start
2) click on Run
3) type in: tracert blogspot.com
4) you should see something like:
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
5) right click in the dos window, > select all, and paste it in here as a comment… or if someone could mail me it (angelo DOT embuldeniya AT gmail DOT com) — i’d appreciate it.. then we could figure out where exactly the block is taking place at.
cheers! :)
I am on Iqara.net..As of Saturday afternoon, I have no problem in accessing both blogspot and blogger..Thought of sharing this information. Hope it remains that way
Hi,
I am loving in Mumbai. I am using MTNL Triband and I have another cable connection on another computer and yet not able to open blog sites on either computer. But other blogs like Wordpress, etc. are opening. So why not Blogger? So what exactly can we do about this? Contact the ministry?
Regards,
Gaurav.
Ooppss, Sorry. I meant living in Mumbai.
Also no problem on the National Inernet Backbone!
Hey I can! I’m even able to blog! Me’s on a BSNL (Sancharnet) broadband line at Nashik, India.
Neha, I sent the tracert (whatever that may be) to Angelo, and I hope he can make some sense of it, to me it looked all greek.
Neha I sent the tracert (whatever that may be to Angelo, hope he can make some sense out of it.
Neha – I am using exatt.net and sadly I am not able to access Blogspot. The same goes for my net connection at home. It is 7 Star Cabel Service.
This is what I get – The window closes after jumping to 16 or at times to 20.
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 10.92.0.13
2 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.3.1
3 3 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.2.100
4 69 ms 42 ms 70 ms 202-63-173-38.static.exatt.net [202.63.173.38]
5 7 ms 8 ms 8 ms 202-63-173-37.static.exatt.net [202.63.173.37]
6 26 ms 8 ms 8 ms 58.68.12.1
7 * 8 ms 9 ms 202.148.196.133
8 15 ms 66 ms 8 ms 202.148.196.129
9 40 ms 41 ms 38 ms 202.148.198.58
10 55 ms 51 ms 51 ms 202.148.198.22
11 51 ms 50 ms 91 ms 202.148.198.190
12 281 ms 280 ms 325 ms 203.208.191.33
13 280 ms 277 ms 310 ms 203.208.171.9
14 279 ms * 287 ms 203.208.173.133
15 329 ms * * so-0-1-0.plapx-cr3.ix.singtel.com [203.208.182.2
29]
16 292 ms 329 ms
Neha the tracert that I sent looked something like
1. * * * request timedout over 30 iterations. I guess I do not know how to do it properly :(
Hi Mridula,
I heard that you have contacted MTNL Triband and that they have confirmed that our ministry have banned it. Did they tell you how long it will take before the ban is lifted? And also whats the reason of blocking Blogspot blogs and not any other blogs like wordpress, etc? Can you please find out? By the way this is a very nice blog.
Regards,
Gaurav.
I’m getting the posts as feeds in the feed-reader. Another option, Amit informed me, is to type in http://www.pkblogs.com/blogname. Eg., http://www.pkblogs.com/indiauncut. Can’t really see the meaning though, to block blogs. BTW, me on MTNL broadband, Mumbai.
Request timed out for 30 hops – it says … “192.168.17.1 reports: Destination net unreachable. Trace complete.”
A couple of folks have left comments at my blog- Spearhead is blocking it too.
D
Hi,
I’ve just commented at desipundit.com about this and thought I’ll do it here too.
Just a few hours ago I was accessing blogspot from Sify Cafe at my Apartment, Andheri East. Now I am at a fren’s place in Bandra and she is using MTNL Tri-band. I cannot access any blogspot sites from here except through the pkblog route given. Uh… I dunno how to send a tracert thingie *stupid grin* Is this like giving the ping command at the Command prompt?
Nice blog.
-Kima
Well I am able to get thru Blogspot from my home PC now. But still can’t get thru office net connection.
I highly doubt that the site has been blocked by government officials.
Ooops just read the instructions on how to run the tracert thingie now only…. *GRIN*
Here is what I got from my fren’s comp. She’s using MTNL.
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 * * * Request timed out.
2 17 ms 16 ms 16 ms triband-mum-59.183.63.254.mtnl.net.in [59.183.63
.254]
3 15 ms 16 ms 16 ms triband-mum-59.185.0.2.mtnl.net.in [59.185.0.2]
4 15 ms 16 ms 16 ms 59.160.0.138.static.vsnl.net.in [59.160.0.138]
5 25 ms 16 ms 16 ms vsb-lvsb-gig.Bbone.vsnl.net.in [202.54.2.22]
6 233 ms 229 ms 230 ms nny-mum-4th-stm1.Bbone.vsnl.net.in [202.54.2.26]
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 317 ms 314 ms 312 ms 66.249.94.235
9 311 ms 344 ms 311 ms 66.249.95.127
10 292 ms 291 ms 294 ms 66.249.94.233
11 292 ms 292 ms 292 ms 66.249.95.246
12 293 ms 296 ms 297 ms
Ditto problem here. (in Mumbai) and surprise, surprise. The company shifted to reliance broadband y’day.
I’m using BSNL broadband at home and Airtel broadband at office. No problemo.
Airtel Broadband from Gurgaon seems to work fine.
I’m assuming that the tracert is only useful if blogspot is blocked.
I am on BSNL, no problems accessing blogspot.
am on bsnl. no problems.
I am on BSNL Broadband and no problems so far. I think, this may be due to a temporary technical problem from the ISP’s side ( Spectranet in this case). If the govt plans to ban, the easiest way is to make BSNL block the blogs. Spectranet belongs to the Punj Lloyd group ( a leader in engg sector) and govt will not issue directives to them, just like that, IMO
Mridula, yes, you can pass on the number to me [icarusprakashATgmaidotcom].
I still don’t believe that a call center employee will have access to information such as ‘govt directive’ issued to the company, at least in India.
The rights of ISPs are guarded by an association called Internet Service Providers Association of India. The president of ISPAI is none other than, Mr.Sanjay Dwivedi, CEO of Spectranet. If i were in his place, the first thing i would do, after being threatened by the ministry, is issue a press release. None sofar. there is no reason for them to remain silent. a search in google news for spectranet returns nil . Hence i assume that, the the call centre person you spoke to you was just an apprentice who doesnt know how to handle calls.
On the contrary, if spectranet was really threatened to ban blogger.com and the ISP is concealing the facts for some unknown reason, then the issue is big.
A friend of my friend works for spectranet. Will speak to him on monday and get some details, if the mystery is not solved till then, that is.
Quick Note – Thank you all for your responses.
At first glance it does appear like VSNL is blocking access to blogspot, which is surprising since people on VSNL ISP are able to access blogspot. I am not entirely sure of how ISPs and carriers work in India – however, I think if in the next 48 hours nothing happens – those who cannot access should call their ISPs and demand an explanation.
To me it’s worrisome – world over blog blocks don’t happen over night. It goes from ISP to ISP – and before you know it all ISPs have blocked something.
But as Prakash mentions – I have my reservations and doubts. If the government did want to block something – they would do it at the top level, or start with all their own ISPs.
Again – we could approach http://www.ispai.in/ or http://www.nixi.org/ if our own ISPs do not respond. (Though a stray voice here and there may not do much.)
Wait and watch?
I once again called Spectranet customer care. They are more guarded now. They said we will not block any site unless there is a govt directive. So next question was “So is there a govt directive?” To which the executive took me into a loop. What is my institute name etc. etc. I dropped the call finally saying if it is too uncomfortable for you I will drop my question. Anyone desiring to call the call centre can mail for the number at mridula at gmail dot com.
India against Social Networking ?…
[ via desipundit ] Neha Vishwanathan of withinandwithout is out investigating a possibility where ISP’s in India are blocking google’s most popular blogging service, blogspot.com. Her readers have noticed so far that it’s not the bl…
Time to switch over your DNS servers folks.
Umm… Can the issue as simple as err umm google moving its servers in India or ISPs clearing their old DNS cache…
I read somewhere above that traceroute will tell you if blogspot is blocked – trace route has nothing to do with it.
Chill people – everything will work by tomorrow hehe!
S
no problem here
we r using digital net ISP i’m from hyderabad
Hi all. I am also in Mumbai, Bandra, using MTNL broadband and have been unable to access my blog for several days now. I have read all these comments and the ones on the google group. I can’t believe that they would block blogger… and not sure what they believe would be accomplished. if it does have anything to do with the blasts on tuesday, then are they going to block all outgoing international calls next?!
here is half of the trace route from my computer:
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms
why did it only print half of my response?!
here’s the full trace route (or still half b/c the window closes if i wait too long to copy!)
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms
If the server is down at the Blogspot.com end – you shouldn’t be able to access it via proxy either.
I am not sure that this is a block at all. As it has been pointed out – it doesn’t make sense for private ISPs to block before Government stake ISPs. More likely – somewhere along – there is an issue along the routers.
Let me repeat – I DOUBT if this is a block – highly unlikely etc. I don’t even the government gives that much of a damn about online content. Either way – bring it to the attention of your ISPs.
All blogs are still accessible on MTNL broadband using RSS readers, I’ve tested with Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader/view/)
Tip: If you wish to access http://status.blogspot.com, then enter http://status.blogspot.com/atom.xml in the Google Reader Search box, and voila you shall have access to the entire blog & up-to-date!
Hope that brings in some cheers
Happy Blogging!
Milind Kolekar
http://kolekar.blogspot.com
No problem on InCable.
What surprises me is that bloggers simply assumed that the Indian government has not only blocked blogspot, but also it was indulging in “hanky panky”. Oh sure, individual bloggers can rant off depending on their own knowledge and expertise, but I was shocked to see a verbatim quote including the “hanky panky” on DesiPundit. I’d say the bloggers at DP should have (and usually do have) greater responsibility and discretion than individual bloggers.
As far as I can tell the case seems to be: (a) subscribers of some ISPs couldn’t access blogspot.com (b) call centre responses were inconsistent and unsatisfactory (c) some bloggers said that some customer service rep insinuated that there was a government directive. We don’t know exactly what the blogger asked (and how technically competent the blogger was), what the exact response was, and how much information was lost before it ended up on DesiPundit.
Neha … Typepad blogs seem to be blocked too … this is what i am getting for Typepad blogs …
C:\Documents and Settings\Dina Mehta>tracert typepad.com
Tracing route to typepad.com [204.9.178.11]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 192.168.17.1 reports: Destination net unreachable.
Trace complete.
Neha I too faced problem with Typepad before. I just forgot to mention it as I read very few typepad blogs.
However incompetent I might be technically, I am not deaf. I asked just two simple things: “Is the site http;//blogspot.com blocked at your end,” the answer was a categorical yes after typing the URL. Next, I asked another simple question, “Why” the executive put me on hold for a long time and then came with asimple response “We have blocked the site because we have a letter from ministry of communication.”
Here is the call centre number and before anyone of you want to call me deaf along with technically incompetent please ring it yourself 91 – (0)11 – 41612277. You can take that much trouble.
And you may not get this simple response now, the next time I called them at night, they were more guarded, they just said “we do not block any sites unless the govt. asks us to” and would not confirm or deny if they have blocked it. The call centre guy is incompetent, I am incompetent and you all are so vigilent that you can’t even ring a number. And before you say that I heard it wrong the next time, please pick up your phone and call. It is not that difficult from anywhere in the wrold.
Neha .. just called Reliance Powersurfer again and they tell me that after all my calls yesterday, they checked again and wished to confirm that they were not blocking or filtering any sites themselves. However, the big news from the call centre employee on the line was that they did check and it seems that Blogspot has been blocked by the Ministry of Communication centrally. I asked them for more details, or any sort of confirmation of the same, which they were unable to provide.
We have MTNL broadband and a Reliance dial-up in Delhi; can’t access blogspot blogs or typepad blogs directly on either, though I can post on my blog and as someone suggested, access blogs through RSS feeds. (If this is some sort of ban, it’s a very incompetent one!)
MTNL was not unhelpful. They didn’t offer an explanation, but they asked us to carry out the tracert directive, asked what the results were, and said they would check their routers. When I asked whether any government directive had been issued, the lady at the other end said she was not aware of the situation, which is pleasantly ambiguous. She said there might be a technical problem, so I’m keeping an open mind on this. Incidentally, rediff blogs are accessible.
Browser based feed readers will pick up feeds from any place because it isn’t your IP calling for them, but the browser reader’s IP. Which is exactly why you can also access them from a proxy server.
So while http://mumbaihelp.blogspot.com/atom.xml will show up in your browser feedreader, you won’t be able to go directly to the atom formatted xml site feed page. The case of a desktop based feed reader is different however – so you wouldn’t be able to pull out feeds for blocked sites.
This is murky. Typepad.com as well. Strange. If they had to – why wouldn’t they after more popular services like LiveJournal.com? Also, wouldn’t the letter be coming in from DOT?
can’t access *.blogspot.com on MTNL broadband in Delhi..
I’m using an Exatt connection at home and Blogspot is inaccessible. Though I’m able to access Blogspot through anonymiser websites. But Blogger.com is working fine, only blogspot.com suffixes seem to be blocked. At office where we have an Air Tel connection all blogspot sites are accessible.
Here’s my blogspot.com traceroute. The right click and select all feature isn’t working on my PC, therefore am including a screenshot (http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h53/soumyadip/tracert.jpg)
i have spectranet in delhi and can’t access any blogspot.com sites since the past two days.
I’m surfing from my fiancee’s MTNL Triband connection and I get a “page cannot be displayed” error for all blogspot blogs. I can read them in bloglines (which is where I saw Amit Varma’s post on the issue)
Here are the tracert details:
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 * * * Request timed out.
2 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms triband-mum-59.183.63.254.mtnl.net.in [59.183.63
.254]
3 39 ms 29 ms 29 ms triband-mum-59.185.0.65.mtnl.net.in [59.185.0.65
]
4 28 ms 29 ms 29 ms 220.227.113.122
5 187 ms 209 ms 189 ms 80.77.0.113
6 175 ms 179 ms 189 ms 195.66.224.125
7 295 ms 299 ms 309 ms 72.14.236.216
8 * 301 ms 299 ms 66.249.94.235
9 299 ms 299 ms * 66.249.95.127
10 309 ms 319 ms 311 ms 66.249.94.233
11 320 ms 309 ms 309 ms 66.249.95.246
12 309 ms 299 ms 319 ms 216.239.46.44
13 301 ms 309 ms 299 ms 72.14.236.9
14 308 ms 309 ms 309 ms 72.14.233.121
15 318 ms 319 ms 309 ms 216.239.49.78
16 299 ms 309 ms 309 ms blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
Trace complete.
it seems that Blogspot has been blocked by the Ministry of Communication centrally
Dina, could you please re-confirm this? As far as I know, India does not have a Ministry of Communication. There is a Department of Telecommunication, a Ministry of Information Technology and a body called CERT-IN, which, the last I knew, was the one handling internet censorship. If it could be confirmed by Spectranet, Reliance Powersurfer or whoever as to which government body sent the directives, one can try and approach them and ask for an explanation.
Hi All,
I am from Mumbai using MTNL broadband. I am still facing the same problem as before. I can post on my blog http://cuculus.blogspot.com, can edit it too but can’t view it. Today also I posted something on my blog but what’s the use? Milind, I tried the address given by you (http://status.blogspot.com/atom.xml ) to access it but it doesn’t work either.
Whatever has been discussed here, I’ve tried everything, the result is same.
Mridula, there is no need to get angry or upset, we do trust you but what other people are saying also has some value. Maybe, in the begining some irresponsible person has told you about the true situation. So, cheer up. :)
We need to know how long it’s going to take for restoration & what was the actual reason for blocking it.
Oh goshh! I had just started blogging for the first time in my life and when I posted my first post on 14th July, I couldn’t see my blog and didn’t even know how it looks like ! And, situation remains same till now.
This is 1:20 am 17th July.
Later on, I could view it thru proxy server but it’s not the same look what it should have been.
Cheers!!!
Cuckoo
Cuckoo: O gosh!
I am from India, and have Reliance Infocom as my ISP, and I can confirm that both blogger and typepad hosted blogs are inaccessible for me. However, there’s an easy work around (in fact there are many many), and here is one (although it’s probably a little cumbersome):
http://techbytes.co.in/experimental/bypass.php?url=http://blockeddomain.blogspot.com
Replace the part that appears after “url=” with whichever blocked domain that you want to access (that’s a script on my blog).
I guess, this is a serious issue, and this is another reason why I would stay away from hosted blogging networks. Not only is this vendor lock-in thing crazy in this day and age, it takes under $10 to get yourself a domain name and something equally cheap for web hosting (at least initially it’s gonna be cheap and then google will help foot the bill as your blog rises in popularity.)
For blockage: you could take the blog feed and republish it with FeedBurner. It has an option to republish HTML as well (in addition to having the Feedburner feed page itself shown as a blogpage). I.e., the entire website (mumbaihelp, I presume) can be republished elsewhere.
[...] You may wonder why I’m posting this message about remaining anonymous on the internet. Well, If you’ve read my prior post on “India Against Social Networking” , and have been following up on it via the links [1 & 2] I’ve provided (Dina, Amit, Abhishek, Soumyadip, Chuck, MockingBird, have got a post up on the subject too), well you should know that there has been news that the Ministry Of Comminucations (In India) has issued a letter/directive to ISP’s to block access to blogspot.com. Not all ISP’s seems to have abided by the Ministry’s directive, but the the Multi-State ISP’s like Spectranet and MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) have. [...]
It has been interesting to read user experiences here with regards to how people use certain commands. This one in particular [I'm trying hard not to smile]:
Sure, I get that these kids never knew what MS-DOS was. Can’t blame them. Just a clarification for those still trying the Tracert (it is traceroute, literal meaning tracing the path or route home, in this case the website in question from your machine).
Tracert is a command. To avoid “window closing”, open a dos window, by typing
cmdin Start > Run.In the “black looking” window, type:
tracert blogspot.com > c:\mytrace.txtThis way instead of displaying the trace on screen, it is captured in a file called mytrace.txt in c:\ root.
I had no problems accessing blogger.com or other blogs using a Tata Indicom wireless connection. I live in Madras.
If blogs are being blocked by ISP’s in India, that is a serious problem.
I have been having problems with my blog on blogspot. I have subsequently moved my blog to wordpress…http://treebeard31.wordpress.com
I use airtel broadband and today as I tried to do a tracert, on the 12 th hop the DOS page just shuts down. This happened every time I tried.
P
I visit your blog once in a while and I came across the following post today.. regarding blog censorship in India.
http://indiauncut.blogspot.com/2006/07/accessing-blogspot-blogs.html
You know the tremendous effect bloggers have on internet readers thesedays..
An anonymous blogger, a fiery soul, writing fierce words and appealing Indian youth to act is creating ripples in blogosphere now. He is most likely the cause of the censorship by Govt of India as I believe his writings are making the Indian Govt run scared. He has already declared Independence, (Declaration of Independence: http://letsbuildanation.blogspot.com/2006/07/declaration-of-independence-anyone.html), asking people to identify the traitors (Am I a traitor? http://letsbuildanation.blogspot.com/2006/07/am-i-traitor.html) and goading Men to Act ( http://letsbuildanation.blogspot.com/2006/06/awake-arise-o-bharata.html).
I think if we bring this blog down, the ministry might lift the censhorship. But, if we bring it down, I think India goes down along with it, the only flicker of hope I’ve seen in my entire life.
As far as I know, India does not have a Ministry of Communication.
My apologies: there is indeed a Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, but it is popularly known as the IT Ministry.
Neha, For those who are affected by this, here’s my simple solution to view a text-only version of any Blogger blog post. It works with most of the blogger templates. Its faster than proxy server access and better than feed readers sometimes in the sense that it always shows the entire post (which is not true in the case of feed readers if the blogger has configured short version of syndication).
Here’s the tool. Anniyalogam Freedom viewer
I have not been able to access blogspot for at least 3 days now. I imagined it was a problem with my mtnl dialup.
It worked fine on my Hathway cable internet last night (cannot check right now since I have an 8to8 connection).
[...] In Indien scheint es neuerdings an der Tagesordnung zu sein, dass man sich mit dem Thema Weblogs auch ernsthaft annimmt. Potentiale, Risiken, Chancen, Gefahren – all das wird von einigen ISPs unter den Tisch gekehrt und kurzerhand wird der Zugriff auf den im Land am weitesten verbreiteten Bloghoster gesperrt. […] blogs hosted on Blogger.com have been blocked by some ISPs in India.The situation is serious considering the fact that blogspot.com is the most popular blogging platform in India and a few hundred thousand Indian blogs are hosted on Blogspot. [...]
Looks like Airtel in Bangalore is blocking it too. Tech. Support doesn’t know why…
Yes, Airtel in Noida has joined the blocker bandwagon. *blogspot.com was accessible in the morning but now it’s simply shut out.
Yes, I’m using Airtel in Delhi, and I’m not able to access any of the blogspot.com sites!!
Airtel Hyd. Cannot access blogspot or my blog. What for??????
AirTel Broadband in Delhi has blocked blogspot and geocities.com but not typepad it seems. I can log into blogger.com, write and publish but I cant see the site nor other blogspot sites.
[...] Indian ISPs ban blogspot, geocities, and typepad by Sunny on 17th July, 2006 at 12:40 pm This is absurd. Several Indian bloggers including Neha, DesiPundit and Amit are reporting that an increasing number of Indian ISPs have suddenly started banning the above mentioned domains and websites. [...]
[...] More info can be found here. [...]
BlogSpot blocked by Indian ISPs…
…
I use Swiftmail’s Internet connection, and am unable to access blogspot since yesterday evening.
hi,
my tracert
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1
sorry. doesn’t seem to have copied well. here goes again.
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 22 ms 23 ms 20 ms triband-del-59.176.31.254.bol.net.in [59.176.31.
254]
3 22 ms 18 ms 21 ms triband-del-59.179.0.75.bol.net.in [59.179.0.75]
4 17 ms 20 ms 18 ms 220.227.169.42
5 253 ms 254 ms 250 ms 220.224.184.178
6 259 ms 259 ms 261 ms 62.216.145.221
7 420 ms 403 ms 384 ms eqixva-google-gige.google.com [206.223.115.21]
8 332 ms 333 ms 339 ms 216.239.47.120
9 329 ms 328 ms 326 ms 72.14.238.235
10 314 ms 315 ms 312 ms 66.249.94.233
11 315 ms 316 ms 315 ms 66.249.95.246
12 318 ms 317 ms 315 ms 216.239.46.44
13 399 ms 344 ms 387 ms 72.14.236.9
14 387 ms 308 ms 309 ms 72.14.233.121
15 353 ms 307 ms 308 ms 216.239.49.78
16 308 ms 309 ms 311 ms 66.102.15.100
Trace complete.
But still I am not able to get the reason… why is this ?? :( whatever may be the reason… blocking top blogger site it not valid !!
–
InCable in Bombay now seems to be blocking Blogspot.
1 23 ms 30 ms 25 ms dhcp-192-209-129.in2cable.com [203.192.xxx.xxx]
2 28 ms 30 ms 21 ms dhcp-192-192-1.in2cable.com [203.192.192.1]
3 21 ms 22 ms 28 ms dhcp-192-192-20.in2cable.com [203.192.192.20]
4 31 ms 43 ms 25 ms 125.18.0.93
5 30 ms 37 ms 34 ms 59.145.255.44
6 102 ms 75 ms 78 ms 203.101.95.29
7 59.145.11.69 reports: Destination host unreachable.
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1
Hi,
Does anyone know about a good webhost for Blogger.com? I need my own URL instead of something.blogspot.com. I have had enough of this nonsense of our ISP’s blocking Blogspot.com. It seems pretty stupid and inexplicable.
Regards,
Gaurav.
apparently it’s not just some ISPs.
the DoT has blocked Blogspot on the whole.
(this is just a rumour, do you know someone who could confirm it? because i certainly can’t access any blogspot blogs.)
it’s a sad day for democracy, if this is true..
Er, people haven’t suggested proxy servers yet?
Go to http://daveproxy.co.uk, type in whatever address you need and surf away. I’m on exatt, and have been uing daveproxy for the past 2 days for my blogsurfing. It should be a good solution… for a while.
Hell, this continues, I think I’ll move to Canada.
Hope this helps.
I use AirTel Broadband in Delhi. I can login into Blogger and publish but cannot access blogspot sites, geocities.com.
Here goes:
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1
[...] See also: India Uncut, Labnol (again), Bloggers Collective, Desipundit, Dina Mehta, Neha Viswanathan, Vulturo, Uma, Mridula, Techborg [...]
[...] http://www.withinandwithout.com/?p=854 [...]
Hi, most authentic and latest information relating to telephone numbers and the email ids of the bigwigs of the Ministry of Information Technology can be accessed at the following link:
http://www.sarkaritel.com/ministries/info_technology/index.htm
hey,
ended up here reading labnol blog. i live in Hyderabad, use BSNL connection have no problem with accesing the fore mentioned blogs.I think considering our countries history all events of suppression have invariably lead to rising if not a revolution and considering this is an issue of freedom of speech,thought and expression.you won’t be standing alone in this war if we choose the obstruction of our fundamental rights as an indian as acause enough to go to war with our government.
keep blogging.
Airtel Blocks blogspot.com in Chennai too
Web Censorship or a Movement To Serve & Protect…
The government of india’s directive to ban on web access to ’several’ blog hosts (blogspot/typepad/geocities) seems to be a over adhered to action on a directve to ban access to SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) and LeT (Lashk…
I was viewing Mridula’s version of the story and got redirected here from boing boing. both of you are doing a great job.Iam sure this is a passing phase and we’d be blogging again . Iam able to connect and update my blogs though , through an American corporate VPN channel
Great .
This is in rediff now. Shivam has written about it.
Cheers,
VJ
http://whereisvijay.blogspot.com
hi pi,
thanks for the info on daveproxy..i finally was able to chk the blogs..i’m on MTNL triband and its been blocking all .blogspot pages since 15th july. wordpress seems to work fine…what the hell are they trying to do by blocking blogs in some parts of the country…the rest of the world is blogging!!!
[...] சுட்டி 1, சுட்டி 2 [...]
Pi,
Daveproxy is blocked by websense if you try to use it in office or corporate network because it falls under “Proxy Avoidance;Information Technology”
try using http://216.239.39.104/translate_c?hl-en&u=http://www.xxxxxx.com
and replace xxxx with any website u want to open till normal blogging resumes
Thanks
VJ,
http://whereisvijay.blogspot.com
And finally, BSNL Broadband blocks All blogs hosted in Blogspot, in Chennai. Unable to access for the past one hour.
Now sify in Bangalore too has joined the bandwagon. It is possible to access blogger.com itself, but all blogspot.com addresses time out. It is possible to access them through pkblogs.com/URl
Arka
gosh! this is simply preposterous (if the ministry asking the isps to block all blogspot sites is true, which it probably is)!! i am in orissa, ortel net connection.. not able to access blogspot sites since the past three days.. hope it comes back to normal soon
Hi,
I use Sify Broadband and here’s what I get.
I am however able to go to the site using an Web based anonymous surfer like shysurfer.
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1
The last post got truncated …. hence resubmitting the tracert results…
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 10.17.158.1
2 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.100.1
3 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 221-135-252-97.sify.net [221.135.252.97]
4 3 ms 2 ms 2 ms 210.214.255.157
5 4 ms 3 ms 4 ms lan-202-144-108-185.maa.sify.net [202.144.108.18
5]
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 268 ms 267 ms 267 ms 66.102.15.100
Trace complete.
“It seems that some blogs are being used by some terror units (read SIMI) to communicate”
and in other news, The Indian Government has decided to turn off the water supply as it has been reported that the terrorists use water to live
Its always good to see that any government has intelligent people making all the decisions.
Apparently It’s Not Only America…
Apparently it’s not only the US that overreacts to terrorism. This morning, the entire country of India starting blocking all Geocities, TypePad, and BlogSpot websites in entirety. The reasons being given is that terrorists communicate via blogs. Wow….
[...] Several Indian bloggers (via) are reporting that an increasing number of Indian ISPs have suddenly started blocking access to Blogspot, Geocities, and Typepad domains. Posted by Paul in India (July 17, 2006 at 6:19 pm) [...]
I am from Delhi. Yesterday after reading this I checked on Reliance R Connect connection and blogspot was being blocked. I also checked on Sify which was working. But in the last few hours (it’s 11 PM, July 17 now) it’s been blocked on sify too. Geocities is being blocked on both also since god knows when.
LOL@Daniel’s comment.
Doesn’t it say somewhere in the Rigged Veda that “banning blogspot is akin to disrespecting your father, mother, guru and friends”?
Hathway is blocking these sites too.
http://www.boingboing.net/censorroute.html has some intructions/advice for getting round censorship.
for example using the The Coral Content Distribution Network – http://www.coralcdn.org/ – i was able to view whatever blogspot sites i wanted to.
Can’t access using Touctel/Airtel broadband. Am based in Hyderabad !
[...] Neha Viswanathan – Global Voices editor for South Asia and lovely human being – is doing a fantastic job of documenting the situation on her blog. Reading from the top to the bottom of a recent post – with fourteen updates – you get an excellent sense of how Indian bloggers are figuring out just what, precisely, is going on. She points to several other articles, which have excellent summaries of the situation, as people currently understand it, including Rediff, Amit, and Dina. [...]
[...] More here [...]
Bangalore BSNL seems to have been the last one to go down. I can still access TypePad as I type Blogspot went down a couple of hours back.
Iqara chennai joins the list.
Welcome to the new state of emergency.
[...] Read more on fellow blogger responses here. Incidentally, Wordpress has escaped the invasive eyes of the Indian government. Also, some private Indian ISP providers are still allowing access to some sites. However, it seems like only a matter of time before things get worse in this totalitarian country. [...]
Hi Neha,
I guess pkblogs.com has also been blocked.
From Hyderabad…
For the past two days I have been terrorising the guy who gave me my Spectranet connexion… and he’s not even a company rep.
Apologies Cable Guy!!
SHIVAM deserves a big e-pat on the back for all the ‘running around’!! As does Neha and all the others writing bout this e-invasion of privacy.
And now the ‘core issue’… WADDAFUK IS HAPPENING HERE??
I thought this side of the LoC was popularly known as the land of the free… what happened?
Has the GoI pressed the panic button? Or certain guys at a CERT-IN place have gone totally bonkers? Do they think terrorists are born in blogistan? Or is it because they’ve found blog posts titled ‘How I Planted My First Train Bomb’?
Neha,
I can’t access pkblogs anymore. maybe they are overloaded. If you are not able to access it as well, could you pls add an update about my Freedom viewer tool, if you think it is worth it. You would have read my previous comment about it. thanks.
http://www.anniyalogam.com/scripts/freedomviewer.php
I am one of the initiators of the movement known as justice4priyadarshini [http://justice4priyadarshini.blogspot.com]
One of my friends in India recently told me that she couldn’t access the blog. Now, I am not sure if it’s connected to this “ban” on blogs, but I thought you might want to know.
keep fighting guys!
India blocking blogs – following path of China, Iran and the like…
China and Iran I expect. I commented the last time I passed thru Beijing. Pakistan is not that surprising, but India? Apparently Indian ISPs have begun blocking access to Blogspot and other blogging services. A story on Rediff News, already…
This should be the handiwork of the Information and Broadcasting ministry, i think, and not the Information Technology ministry.
[...] BlogHer time » Bookmark on del.icio.us It has been widely reported that Internet users across India are being blocked from accessing anumber of blog hosting sites, including Blog*Spot. We are disappointed and a bit puzzled by these reports. We are also working to understand the situation, and are looking into what we can do to help resolve it. A big thanks to the many bloggers in India and elsewhere who are investigating, reporting, and working to restore access. [...]
Is “democracy” the new communism? Bollocks!
Report: Indian gov blocks Blogspot, Typepad, Geocities blogs (UPDATED)…
Xeni Jardin: BoingBoing reader Jace says, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) passed an order…
Indian market/government not yet ready to embrace Web2.0??!! :(…
In trying to analyze the various news pieces that I saw, I started realizing that this indeed might be an exaggerated response by the government. Not done on purpose to anger any community or corporation, but out of sheer ignorance!! I doubt if the dec…
Indian government doesnt understand the concept of web2.0 or community websites yet. This reminds me of the arrest of CEO of Baazee/eBay India for a porno mms sold on eBay/baazee.
Sad reality!
http://www.desihub.com/blogs/page/mihir/20060717#indian_market_government_not_yet
-mihir
I have a BSNL broadband connection and am located in Bangalore. I can access the page blogger.com and other pages that have blogger on the address line but cannot access any blog at blogspot.com.
Good grief it feels like we are living in Saudi Arabia – Yikes.
I are surfing using a BSNL Broadband connection in Bangalore.
Can access blogger.com but nothing that has blogspot.com in the address.
This censorship is crazy.
I happen to be in Kerala for my vacation.
Since 15th July, Blogspot.com subdomains have been with limited access.
Reliance RConnect has obviously disabled spot access. However, the blogger.com and even the main (redirecting) blogspot.com have been appearing, but without any use.
You can access the Blogger’s dashboard.
But not any of your blog itself!
This message is logged through a Reliance mobile iternet connection from Kerala. (Thrissur City suburbs)
my IP: 220.226.64.219
Server IP: 97.236.2.16
I will now connect to a BSNL dial-up and log in more…
Happy to join in any mode of agitations that you plan of!
-viswam
[...] It stands proven, once again, that stupidity is incredibly hard to insure against. Home | Permalink | [...]
[...] A dedicated band of volunteers have been tracking and posting updates on the ban of blogsites for the past few days. Neha Viswanathan has a sticky post, with links and updates on this ban. [...]
Apparently Blogs are blogged due to some sites inciting hatred. See it here
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=134366
Now connected from the BSNL dial-up.
Situation is same.
blogspot.com subdomains and pkblogs.com have been blocked.
Here is a series of tracert reports for the earlier Reliance connection:
C:\Documents and Settings\s>tracert blogspot.com
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 * * 2621 ms 97.237.1.9
2 237 ms 259 ms 238 ms 97.237.2.1
3 277 ms 257 ms 239 ms 202.138.101.49
4 438 ms 458 ms 459 ms 220.224.184.178
5 456 ms 479 ms 459 ms 62.216.145.221
6 455 ms 497 ms 480 ms eqixva-google-gige.googl
7 587 ms 579 ms 580 ms 216.239.47.120
8 677 ms 499 ms * 72.14.238.235
9 1719 ms 699 ms 639 ms 66.249.94.233
10 3114 ms 2467 ms 630 ms 66.249.95.246
11 667 ms 639 ms 659 ms 216.239.46.44
12 553 ms 540 ms 2905 ms 72.14.236.9
13 2756 ms 597 ms 539 ms 72.14.233.121
14 718 ms * 3758 ms 216.239.49.78
15 575 ms 555 ms 578 ms 66.102.15.100
Trace complete.
C:\Documents and Settings\s>
C:\Documents and Settings\s>tracert blogspot.com
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 441 ms 258 ms 239 ms 97.237.1.9
2 257 ms 240 ms 258 ms 97.237.2.1
3 236 ms 258 ms 239 ms 202.138.101.49
4 456 ms 439 ms 459 ms 220.224.184.178
5 * 864 ms 676 ms 62.216.145.221
6 689 ms 497 ms 499 ms eqixva-google-gige.go
7 555 ms 579 ms 560 ms 216.239.47.120
8 497 ms 479 ms 498 ms 72.14.238.235
9 * * 679 ms 66.249.94.233
10 655 ms 659 ms 639 ms 66.249.95.246
11 657 ms 639 ms 698 ms 216.239.46.44
12 534 ms 559 ms 539 ms 72.14.236.9
13 556 ms 538 ms * 72.14.233.121
14 2247 ms 613 ms 619 ms 216.239.49.78
15 558 ms 579 ms 559 ms 66.102.15.100
Trace complete.
C:\Documents and Settings\s>
C:\Documents and Settings\s>tracert viswaprabha.blogspot.com
Tracing route to blogspot.blogger.com [66.102.15.101]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 281 ms 239 ms 259 ms 97.237.1.9
2 237 ms 259 ms 239 ms 97.237.2.1
3 256 ms 259 ms 359 ms 202.138.101.49
4 437 ms 479 ms 439 ms 220.224.184.178
5 475 ms 459 ms 479 ms 62.216.145.221
6 476 ms 539 ms 478 ms eqixva-google-gige.google.com [206.223.115.21]
7 * * 660 ms 216.239.47.120
8 477 ms 499 ms 519 ms 72.14.238.235
9 657 ms 639 ms 821 ms 66.249.94.233
10 637 ms 699 ms 678 ms 66.249.95.246
11 656 ms 638 ms 659 ms 216.239.46.44
12 3938 ms 555 ms 578 ms 72.14.236.9
13 534 ms 560 ms 538 ms 72.14.233.121
14 555 ms 539 ms 559 ms 216.239.49.78
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21
C:\Documents and Settings\s>tracert viswaprabha.blogspot.
Tracing route to blogspot.blogger.com [66.102.15.101]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 * * * Request timed out.
2 * 3434 ms 2538 ms 97.237.2.1
3 * 2497 ms 217 ms 202.138.101.49
4 716 ms 446 ms 455 ms 220.224.184.178
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 2496 ms 2919 ms 980 ms 216.239.47.120
8 * * 965 ms 72.14.238.235
9 2860 ms * 1493 ms 66.249.94.233
10 2660 ms 2938 ms 3961 ms 66.249.95.246
11 2742 ms 4078 ms 2198 ms 216.239.46.44
12 4217 ms 582 ms 952 ms 72.14.236.9
13 1534 ms 550 ms 580 ms 72.14.233.121
14 3182 ms 2780 ms 1280 ms 216.239.49.78
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 ^C
C:\Documents and Settings\s>
PKBlogs is not accessible on Airtel and BSNL
I have not had any issues – in the last four days. At home I use a local cable provider. And at work we are on Reliance.
There seems to be a lack of clarity. The whole of yesterday I was not able to access any blogs in my office where STPI is the provider (of course, I could access via pkblogs). But I have absolutely no problems in accessing any blog at home. I use a BSNL broadband connection at home. I have been accessing blogspot blogs “directly”. Strange!
[...] Black Out – Updates July 18th, 2006 | வலையகம்|by prakash window.document.getElementById(‘post-1624′).parentNode.className += ‘ adhesive_post’;Jason Goldman from Blogspot.com acknowledges there is a problem. A big thanks to the many bloggers in India and elsewhere who are investigating, reporting, and working to restore access [...]
Pls Join http://groups.google.com/group/BloggersCollective/
[...] This has been confirmed by voices all over the Indian blogosphere. Heres a bunch of posts that are talking about this. [...]
RTI Wiki is up for the ban:
http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/Blogs_and_RTI_Act
I was able to access blogs at blogspot till late noon yesterday. Does that mean Chennai was the last to join the blockade list?
Truly mindless action by the Moc. What next?
Strange! I’ve been able to surf all blogs without any incovenience at all. I’m on Sify Broadband. Did they forget to ban it? *phew*
If this is seriously happening, has the government gone INSANE? Instead of actually taking some solid steps to curb terrorism, it’s just proving how the Centre is full of a bunch of censorship crazy morons. We might as well live in Saudi Arabia and get stoned to death for kissing than live in this pathetically fake democracy.
What next? Arresting people for condemning the retards who happen to “rule” us? Banning internet altogether because it promotes terrorism and…*gasp* immorality (isn’t it the favourite word of the censorship lover ministers?)? Or burning the constitution in public?
I can’t believe that this is really taking place.
Hi folks,
I have Sify at home & Airtel at workplace.
STATUS:
At home (Sify) – Blogspot works ;)
At workplace (Airtel) – Blogspot sucks :( It doesnt work
Guys, u seem to be fine with Airtel… Is Airtel still fine for u all?
Cheers :)
Manoj
Well, I’m on BSNL broadband in Vadodara. Last night, tyepad was inaccessible, but blogspot was. This morning blogspot is down as well. Guess some babu woke up and decided to be efficient.
The last time I experienced this was in the People’s Republic of China. Welcome to the People’s Republic of India.
Neha,
It has been more than 12 hours since I posted on India-IT-Pulse : http://india-it-pulse.blogspot.com/2006/07/india-blogspot-blogs-blocked_17.html, a suspiscion that the blocking of key blog sites in India might be restricted to cities. I use Tata Indicom to access the Internet in my rural locality. Boing Boing did pick up the story yesterday within hours of me posting this. I even tried accessing my blogs yet again at 11:30 AM today and everything is just fine. I tried Accessing blogspot blogs via Tata Indicom. It yielded positive results.
Vijay
[...] Blogger blocked by some ISPs in India? [...]
Well I have been able to access blogger (and all other sites) all this while! I didn’t need to use any shell like pkblogs etc. I can login into my own blogger account and do anything with my own blogspot blog.
Though I have been accessing it from work (in gurgaon). The ISP happens to be “Bharti British Telecom Internet Limited”.
Neha,
It has been 12 hours since I posted on India-IT-Pulse : http://india-it-pulse.blogspot.com/2006/07/blogspot-blocking-in-major-cities-only.html, about the continued access that I have to Blogger via my ISP Tata Indicom. I am still able to access my blogspot blogs without any problems. something fishy about why the selective blocking is happening, does not connect well with the terrorist story doing the rounds. Boing Boing picked up the story withing hours after I posted my suspicion of whether the blocking is happening at city level only. http://www.boingboing.net/2006/07/17/report_indian_govern.html
Hey Neha thanks so much for Blogging the block out.
I wish to share some spaces and hope u paste the following link on the next update so that bloggers can remain active.
The link is http://www.pkblogs.com
My blog is http://tarunsblogs.blogspot.com u will obviously unable to see my page if u based in India.
But there is a solution, if u wish to see my blog then just click on this URL
http://pkblogs.com/tarunsblogs
I hope that if u have Orkut access at ur place of work/home please paste this link on Orkut communities and I would request you to paste this link on your blog.
“They can take our lives buit they will never take away our freedom” … (Mel Gibson in the movie Braveheart)
I have two internet connections at my home.
Beam Cable: I can’t access any blog from *.blogspot.com
Aksh: I can access all the blogs from *.blogspot.com
[...] Neha vishanathan, Global Voices editor for South Asia written a nice article explains the situation. Needless to say, most Indian bloggers are deeply upset about this apparent block. The fact that Pakistan has a similar block in place – put in place in the wake of the Danish cartoons, fiercely combatted by the Don’t Block the Blogs campaign – isn’t much consolation. [...]
After all the hue and cry about blocking domains, MTNL has finally allowed access to them. though i do wonder if this is temporary or will it go back to being blank. as of today, 18th july, i’ve been able to access.
lets hope it stays this way, and i do hope the other ISP’s allow access too..
I have been trying to log into my blog page for the last three days. I live in Delhi and have an Airtel broadband connection. Thought there was a problem with the server till i was alerted. Let all the bloggers start a campaign — as someone who works in the media we are anyway doing a big story on this. Any suggestions?
Bloggers against censorship …
Bloggers in India are using this google group to discuss the current censorship and this wiki to manage and organize actions.
Internet censorship is impossible. You can always get around them. Like all technological restrictions, they need to be bro…
My Hathway is still down! I really wanna laugh for that. There are lots of ways to communicate each others, not only blogs. What else if blogger is banned, then they will use another way to communicate again, So is there any plan to ban Mobile for security purpose! funny!
Is your blog blocked in India, Pakistan, Iran or China?
ACCESS THRU THIS: http://www.inblogs.net
[...] I am confident, that we are going to push the government into lifting the blocks. Lots of Indian bloggers, including me have made it their mission to blog about this and make sure everyone knows what is going on (Kiran, Shivam, Neha, Mridula). This needs to be stopped. The Times of India article continues to say, that many bloggers reckon that this clampdown amounts to repression of free speech. I think it does. It has also cut into helpful organisations like the Mumbai Help blog, which was helping people during the blasts of 7/11 and during the floods last year. Almost nobody can access that blog anymore, as it was hosted on Blogspot. [...]
[...] More on Neha’s blog. [...]
[...] Neha Viswanathan [...]
Just a min ago my friend informed that the blogger.com in which edit,post etc is also seems to be blocked. he is using sify broadband
hey, i polled at the ndtv just now. this is the first time I am forced myself to get on to such a poll and click it. unfortunatley it has come to that.
whoever reads this, needs to go a poll no on the ndtv site, for ‘righteousness sake’. unfortunately we can’t let most of the censorship morons think that a stupid poll supports their dumb act.
so go and vote !! http://www.ndtv.com
Inept censorship won’t work…
The Indian government have blocked all Blogspot blogs, but if it is an attempt at censorship it won’t work….
Hi Neha
I am in Hyderabad. I tried from Hathway and I was unable to access blogspot. But the connection I have at home Beam Cables I can access all Blogspot sites.
However for the past month I have been unable to access Geocities Sites at all :(
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.
Hi, I’ve been trying to access blogspot unsuccessfully since last night. My ISP is Iqara and their call center guys don’t even know if the site is blocked or not. BSNL is the service which I use in office and blogspot is blocked by them as well. Filing a writ petition before the high court looks like an option…
Hi, I’ve been unsucessfully trying to access blogspot since last night. My ISP is Iqara and the fellows at the call center dont even seem to know if the site is blocked or not!! BSNL, which I use in my office, has also blocked it. Filing a writ petition before the high court looks like an option, if they dont lift the ban soon…
vsnl/tata indicom is blocking it in Mumbai.
the tracert stops at the backbone of VSNL.
Tracing route to blogspot.blogger.com [66.102.15.101]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 5 ms 3 ms 4 ms xxx.xxx.xxx.x.bb-static.vsnl.net.in [aaa.AAA.aaa.1]
2 6 ms 6 ms 4 ms 49-1.broadband.vsnl.net.in [202.54.49.1]
3 4 ms 4 ms 3 ms 59.163.24.254.static.vsnl.net.in [59.163.24.254]
4 vsb-lvsb-stm4.Bbone.vsnl.net.in [202.54.2.190] reports: Destination host u
nreachable.
the callcenter guy also confirmed “as blogs cannot be traced, the media is being blocked”..when asked for a timeframe when they will be unblocked, he pleaded ignorance.
i do want vigilance, but is a LOCKED DOWN STATE necessary?
[...] Read more at Within/Without. Posted by beks Filed in Me [...]
Sad day in the India’s tryst with technology! Govt seems to banned access to blogspot.
But interestingly I am hosting this of my old grad school webpage so I dont have a issue. But I tried a lot of sites on india.blogspot.com and any thing with blogspot.com URL is not accessable! So this is sad but true.
To conform more I did the following:
C:\Documents and Settings\vdegalah>ping blogspot.com
Pinging blogspot.com [66.102.15.100] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 66.102.15.100:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
C:\Documents and Settings\vdegalah>traceroute blogspot.com
‘traceroute’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\Documents and Settings\vdegalah>tracert blogspot.com
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 16 ms 2 ms 3 ms 10.224.67.250
2 18 ms 2 ms 3 ms 10.224.33.250
3 23 ms 9 ms 7 ms bga1cr-GigabitEthernet0-2.wan.intel.com [10.128.6.89]
4 287 ms 410 ms 408 ms scbcr-ATM3-1-0-8000.wan.intel.com [10.128.63.189]
5 422 ms 410 ms 408 ms fmbcr-ATM2-0-0-1016.wan.intel.com [10.128.63.85]
6 421 ms 408 ms 408 ms 10.128.63.194
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 *
I hope all this makes the blogs more popular!
-Vijay
One can use tools such as anonymizer and tor to circumvent this censorship issue. However, this is a workaround. The real deal would be to have no censorship at all. This is absolutely stupid.
For Pratyush Ranjan:
———————-
Dude,
This is not about the 20 sites that have been blocked. This is also about the idea that someone in Delhi is actually letting you see what you can see and that is not how “freedom of speech” works. It is aboslutely irresponsible for you to say that this is just about X number of blogs. No, this is about how you end up being a mere pawn in the larger scheme of things. It is totally emasculating.
—> How the hell can you be so naive? You think Google gives a damn? Even if it does, that would equate us with China, North Korea and Pakistan. I will then be ashamed to say I am from India.
I reached this page. When I searched google with the words “unable to access blogspot blog”. Till reading this thread I was thinking that it is problem on my computer only.
I am from Chennai and using BSNL Broadband connection. From yesterday i.e.17th July 2006 onwards I am unable to access my or any other blogspot.com blog. But
I am able to access blogger dash board and able to post.
I do not understand whether we (Indians) are living in a democratic country or under a dictator?
Anand Kumar Reddy.
You can use the right to information act to do that i guess .anway here is my blogsite :-)
[...] Neha Viswanathan – Global Voices editor for South Asia and lovely human being – is doing a fantastic job of documenting the situation on her blog. Reading from the top to the bottom of a recent post – with fourteen updates – you get an excellent sense of how Indian bloggers are figuring out just what, precisely, is going on. She points to several other articles, which have excellent summaries of the situation, as people currently understand it, including Rediff, Amit, and Dina. [...]
As part of a generation that has NOT experienced first-hand censorship of the mass media (the last time this happened was during Emergency in 1975) this ‘blogger block’ has come as a deep shock to all of us. Living in India prepares you for some of the toughest realities that LIFE could throw your way but freedom to say what you want has been largely a sacred cow, especially since the trauma of Emergency. I am glad that the blogger community is not taking things lying down. The kind of fevered debate and discussion this unfortunate ban (some say oversight) has generated is heartening and proves many assumptions (especially those of non-bloggers and certain high priests of the mainstream media) wrong. The biggest and nastiest of which is the that BLOGISTAN (yes it’s a subcontinent thing!) is a space for self-indulgent thumb-twiddlers and wannabe opinion-makers.
It has also proved that Blogistan is a live, throbbing and real community of people like any other, anywhere else in the world.
And the beauty of their existence is that they hang somewhere between continents, time-zones and governments defying both the realities of time and space. Someone blogs/replies/links to someone else’s post while that someone else is in the middle of a good night’s slumber or whatever else the night’s meant for. And these connections spread from one to another to another to yet another. Becoming a web of ideas, emotions, feelings. All shared and exchanged in good faith.
This ban is stupid and ugly because it aims at banning something as sacred as human connectivity.
Neha,
Shata Windicom (estwhile VSNL) in Bangalore has blocked *.blogspot.com. I am able to post via blogger, but cannot view any blogs on blogspot.
Rakesh
ps: for the record, I believe in freedom of speech. The whole world deserves to see my trashy diaries ;-)
ps2: relax, this too shall pass. you can’t keep a good thing under, or a crappy blanket over for too long.
I have BSNL at Bangalore… my tracert says:
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/8806.html
[...] go here. here. here. here. here and here. [...]
[...] I am sure the majority of bloggers would accept that solution and go back to their normal blogging life. But thankfully, few blogger voices like Neha, Amit, Dilip [initially via email], and Confused have gone beyond the current scenario and examined the larger picture of censorship. As I mentioned yesterday, the act of censorship is as futile as it is self-defeating but it ends up setting a dangerous precedent that any speech – online or otherwise – if found unpopular can be stifled. It sets in motion a series of events that know no end as the parameters of censorship are widened each time to satisfy every section of the society. [...]
[...] Related Links: http://www.withinandwithout.com/?p=854 http://www.shivamvij.com/2006/07/somebody-must-have-blocked-some-sites-what-is-your-problem.html [...]
You’re completely right about the censorship issue. And I agree that not enough people are talking about it and why it is wrong.
I’ve tried to cover this in my post on the topic. I’m on blogspot though, so I wonder how many people in India will actually be able to see it.
[...] Please keep checking the updates of this case here [A!] Posted by thegadget Filed in Weblog, Blogging, News, Blog, Weblogs, Media, Tech, Censorship, Politics, Blogs, Government, Update, Privacy, Bloggers, Asia: India [...]
My blog is blocked by the ISP. I noticed it when I saw a sudden decrease in the number of daily visitors in my blog. Even though I am able to access my blog through some round about ways, that doesnt slove the problem. I am having a lot of regular readers who visit my blog, through direct links as well as through search engines. Nobody will be bothered to visit my through some other ways, or nobody will be bothered to change their ISP to read my blogs. Why can’t the government block only those blogs which spreads anti national sentiments.
i thought it was a problem with my personal connection given that i couldn’t access my blog all of yesterday, and when i came into work and couldn’t access it here either, that’s when i started to search, because blogger has no technical info listed about this. lj’s working fine, as is xanga. why is blogspot more dangerous? this is an alarming degree of censorship on the part of the indian government and we have to speak out about it. if there’s a legitimate reason for targeting certain blog sites, that’s one issue, but if it’s just a handful of problem sites, why block the entire server?
i want my blog back!
To anakin-skywalker,
I have a say to you, If the Government of india have done it for the sake of the national security. you cannot question on the security measures.
Its better to target the backbone of the terrorist or extremist activities which make harm to the nation.
But I am very much firm on it that the government should reveal the exact causes of such steps.
I am not favoring the government move dear, I am just sying to dear bloggers to be calm and took the step in the orgnised way to mount pressure on the government to issue the cause of the act.
Do not worry about the guarantee of the fredom of the speech in India. this is 21st century dear. and this is India. the ban of media in India is history. It cannot happen in India, as i think.
This must be the most comprehensive post I have seen so far in more than a year of blogging. Thanks. You should head the bloggers revolt against the powers that be.
You must have endeared yourself to several regular bloggers. Your name should not be Neha but Sneha. Well done.
Pratyush,
from your comment:
“I have a say to you, If the Government of india have done it for the sake of the national security. you cannot question on the security measures.”
“A fine Balance” by Rohinton Mistry takes a close look at life in Emergency- also get your hands on some non fiction or perhaps ask your parents/grandparents about that time.
ANY guberment can justify ANYTHING in the name of “National Security”- whether it is Tiananmen Square protests (1989) or Indian Emergency (1975-77).
All of the below were partially attributed to measures for National Security:
* Wanton detention of innocent people by police without charge or notification of families
* Abuse and torture of detainees and political prisoners
* Use of public and private media institutions, like the national television network Doordarshan, for propaganda
* Forced vasectomy and even castration of thousands of men and women under the infamous family planning initiative. Indira’s son, Sanjay Gandhi, was blamed for this abusive and forcible treatment of people.
* Arbitrary destruction of the slum and low-income housing in the Turkmen Gate and Jama Masjid area of old Delhi. The action, purportedly conducted under the personal orders of Sanjay Gandhi by the officials of the Delhi Development Authority, killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands of poor people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Emergency_(1975_-_77)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989
I am sure there are a lot more relevant examples that my much more well read blogger friends can provide.
This is just a start. If we do not protest, then we are sure to see our freedom taken away. Would you be OK with a ban on email or your daily newspaper if the Guberment says it is for National Security?
Neha, there is no ban. So please don’t go to the extent of comparing this to the Tiananmen Square protests or the Indian emergency. It’s an insult to the people who took part in those protests.
Not a single government source has come out and stated that there is a ban. Not a single ISP has openly said that there is a ban.
Your last four updates have been just on how this ‘ban issue’ is feeding of itself. Have you heard anything from the Government? Have you heard anything from bloggers/internet surfers in the WB, Rajasthan, MP, Himachal, Kerala, Pondicherry, Punjab, Haryana on why most of them are able to access blogspot?
Do you think 9 ISPS would all make the same mistake of blocking the entire blogspot over a period of two days?
Patience Neha, there are bigger battles to fight. Please don’t under-estimate our Government, they do know what we are about.
I’m sorry Neha, I had mistaken Tracko’s comments as yours and reacted too soon. I’m 100 per cent against censorship but that is not the case here. As an Indian (the kind that votes) it is sad to see people compare our nation to China, North Korea and Ethiopia. We enjoy the highest levels of individual freedoms here. The only thing the government has banned is sex determination of unborn babies.
Seems like pkblogs and inblogs are blocked too.. Can you all confirm..
Ohh,, that might have been temp down due to load. Its working ok now. Ignore my previous comment.
I guess with the kinda lousy security that Google icorporates in Blogger, blogspot needs to be banned probably :-)
On the serious side, there are something like 100 Blog Tools apart from Blogger, TypePad that can be used to create a Free Blog. How can someone block all URLs? So, on the whole, the whole damn thing is an over enthu knee-jerk reaction of some stupid beerocrat somewhere…
I feel serious bloggers shouldshift over to other Blog Tools and hist their own blogs…
Good to know that all should be well in 48 hours, but then how come I cant suddenly even access my dashboard at http://www.typepad.com which I have been able to do the last couple of days..!!!
TheLearnedMan
Mumbai
Tata Indicom Broadband User
Thank you NEHA,
It is such a wonderful coverage of the entire issue. you did a great job.I’ve been following your blog since day1. Absoltely fantastic
thank you MRIDULA,
thank you SHIVAM,
thank you DINA,
thank you ABI,
thank you NONEDONE.
and big Thanks to everybody associated
I knew it couldn’t have stayed for long.Thank you all for updating and spreading information.
Just 48 hours to go…before we’re free…
Iam Jumping with JOY already
[...] Blogger blocked by some ISPs in India? [...]
Hathway, Hyderabad has also blocked blogspot..Contact No. 91 40 55831313
BTW another circumventor is http://defilter.freepgs.com
Njoi Reading…
Does any site allow u to post on blogspot
I have 2 blogs on TypePad out of which I can now only access one!! Still cannot access the TypePad dashboard…
Now cannot access any blogs again or the dashboard as well!! I hope the DoT or DIT or ISP’s or whoever else know what they are doing…!!!
TheLearnedMan
Typepad / TataIndicomBroadband-Mumbai
links for 2006-07-20…
The Art of Speaking: Rudy, Bill, Arnold, and John Guy Kawasaki points to some great video clips of effective public speaking. (tags: publicspeaking video) Synonyms of the Sea by Frank Bruni Frankie on the “same fish, different name” phenom…
hey i got this when i typed in RUN
Tracing route to blogspot.com [66.102.15.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 46 ms 46 ms 46 ms 59.92.32.1
2 77 ms 77 ms 77 ms 218.248.249.42
3 77 ms 77 ms 77 ms 218.248.255.17
4 77 ms 77 ms 77 ms 218.248.255.18
5 77 ms 77 ms 77 ms 203.101.65.233
6 109 ms 109 ms 109 ms 203.196.8.1
7 249 ms 249 ms 249 ms 217.6.24.169
8 373 ms 374 ms 374 ms 217.239.39.234
9 374 ms 374 ms 374 ms 62.156.139.218
10 374 ms 374 ms 374 ms if-1-0.core2.NQT-NewYork.Teleglobe.net [207.45.2
20.37]
11 374 ms 374 ms 374 ms if-3-2.mcore4.NQT-NewYork.teleglobe.net [216.6.8
7.13]
12 374 ms 374 ms 374 ms if-4-0.mcore4.PDI-PaloAlto.teleglobe.net [216.6.
86.13]
13 374 ms 374 ms 374 ms if-0-0.core3.PDI-PaloAlto.Teleglobe.net [207.45.
196.77]
14 374 ms 374 ms 374 ms Vlan3.msfc2.PDI-PaloAlto.Teleglobe.net [207.45.2
01.102]
15 374 ms 374 ms 484 ms Vlan252.msfc2.PDI-PaloAlto.teleglobe.net [216.6.
50.6]
16 374 ms 374 ms 374 ms
I Need to open my geocities plsssss anyone help to open Geocities.com
pls anyone see my site is opening or not
the url is http://www.geocities.com/vettri02
Angelfire is opening though im using BSNL in chennai
i tried to type in run for geocities.com the codes are came up like this well anyone know what to do next to open geocities plss reply
Tracing route to geocities.com [66.218.77.68]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 51 ms 61 ms 46 ms 59.92.32.1
2 77 ms 77 ms 77 ms 218.248.249.42
3 77 ms 77 ms 77 ms
and for 7 lines its closing
plss do something people. india have lot of genius’s
well im also an indian but i donno what to do so im asking u friends DO SOMETHING.
Today I can access all blogs including mine. So is this the end of the insanity of the govt? or, do I have to face another more severe blockade?
[...] Several Indian Bloggers including Neha, Amit, Dina, Mridula and DesiPundit are reporting that blogs hosted on Blogger.com have been blocked by some ISPs in India.The situation is serious considering the fact that blogspot.com is the most popular blogging platform in India and a few hundred thousand Indian blogs are hosted on Blogspot. [...]
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/07/22/stories/2006072203960100.htm
[...] Also go here, here, here and here for up-to date news on the issue. [...]
[...] 原文链接: Blogger blocked by some ISPs in India? 作者:Neha Viswanathan 翻译: Ahom Kuo 校对：Portnoy [...]
The long dawn of Indian internet activism…
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Blogs Banned in India – My Reflections on Censorship…
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[...] Dina Mehta says, The plot gets thicker and thicker as more bloggers are getting alerted to the fact that an increasing number of Indian ISP’s are banning blogspot and typepad blogs and geocities.com. Several detailed posts on this, with regular updates here: withinandwithout.com, Conversations with Dina, and Travel Tales from India. [...]
[...] Dina Mehta says, The plot gets thicker and thicker as more bloggers are getting alerted to the fact that an increasing number of Indian ISP’s are banning blogspot and typepad blogs and geocities.com. Several detailed posts on this, with regular updates here: withinandwithout.com, Conversations with Dina, and Travel Tales from India. [...]
[...] Dina Mehta says, The plot gets thicker and thicker as more bloggers are getting alerted to the fact that an increasing number of Indian ISP’s are banning blogspot and typepad blogs and geocities.com. Several detailed posts on this, with regular updates here: withinandwithout.com, Conversations with Dina, and Travel Tales from India. [...]
[...] If you want to follow this story, Neha Vishwanathan, a Global Voices Online South Asian Editor, has a great post which is being constantly updated and has been following the issue for the past few days. [...]
Check out my site. Maybe my site and those like it are responsible for India blocking Blogger. The Christian religion is not well accepted in India. Could that be the problem?
[...] Blogger in India It has been widely reported that Internet users across India are being blocked from accessing a number of blog hosting sites, including Blog*Spot. We are disappointed and a bit puzzled by these reports. We are also working to understand the situation, and are looking into what we can do to help resolve it. A big thanks to the many bloggers in India and elsewhere who are investigating, reporting, and working to restore access. [...]
[...] Blogger blocked by some ISPs in India? Update (20/07/2006): Here is the official release of websites banned by Indian Govt. This paper as it appears to be official list from Indian Govt, lists 17 websites which are asked by Gove to be blocked! [...]
debt solution…
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