It appears to be so. Mridula and Neha have the details.
At Mridula's suggestion, I called up the Spectranet's Call Centre in Delhi, and their agent told me that the Ministry of Communications had indeed sent a letter asking them to block the blogspot.com sites. He was unaware of the reasons behind this move.
So, blogspot-blocking is real, but appears (at least, as of now) to be localized. In Bangalore, for example, I have been able to access both my blogger account and blogs on the blogspot.com domain from my home, where I use BSNL dial-up.
If you have any clue about what's going on, do please head over to Mridula's blog and leave a comment. She has been following up on this one.
Thanks for calling up Abi. I was getting a bit tired about my not hearing it properly. Now at least if people say this, I have company :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mridula, for taking this up. I sincerely hope our government -- if it is indeed behind this ill-advised move -- will back off soon. I'll keep checking your blog for updates.
ReplyDeleteThis is in line with the recent laws about sting operation and another law on media gag being contemplated.
ReplyDeletePlease read a similar problem regarding sites hosted on Geocities sites.
ReplyDeleteHowever I am able to connect to Blogspot for sure.
You should try a proxy site like http://www.boreproxy.com/ and then see if you are able to access blogspot using a proxy.
Check this out and confirm if this is not a similar technical issue:
http://nonadsense.blogspot.com/2006/07/indian-isps-are-blocking-geocities.html
This is in line with the recent laws
ReplyDeleteHow many 'recent laws' are we talking about here? Can we please have the nameS of these lawS?
Thanks for asking. We made an entire post for your perusal at your convenience:
ReplyDeleteTo Shivam With Love from Barbarindians
If This all is true, then Congress government is making serious damages to its already damaged reputation.
ReplyDeleteI think all of us in blogosphere should post about this, so that everybody in the world reading any Indian blog will come to Know about this.
My post is here
Btw I could access them since I also use BSNL`s sancharnet.
ReplyDelete> In Bangalore, for example, I have been
ReplyDelete> able to access both my blogger account
> and blogs on the blogspot.com domain
> from my home, where I use BSNL dial-up.
Wait until the block propogates through various ISPs, proxies and nameserver updates. Usually takes about 48 hours to complete before the blackout.
If this block is indeed true, then it's sad to see this happening in India again (the first was Yahoogroups.com a few years ago).
Good news is that Blogger is not blocked. So, blogs can still be published. Feeds can still be remashed and served with such like FeedBurner (that allows you to republish feed as HTML on any site of your choosing purely by scripting). But, that wouldn't be a great idea for the long term if the block persists.
regarding blog censorship in India..
ReplyDeleteYou 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.
I think that discussion forums have been monitored. Here is part of a message from a moderator in andhranews.com dated April 11, 2006.
ReplyDeleteFrom http://www.andhranews.com/viewtopic.php?p=16592&highlight=#16592
" Our office recd a notice from the local cyber police in Hyderabad who asked for information in regard to a specific post (cant tell you additional details in regard to the post for reasons best known to you). We have provided all the information picked in regard to all the posts made at this website along with the user login details, posts, IP addresses and other tracking information. Last known about this is that the police have tracked a member (a very old member of the board) and have already taken action on him." barbaraindian's comments above indicate that there may be more such efforts.
To the anon above:
ReplyDeleteYour links are great but there are a couple of notable fallacies. Money being fungible, money produced anywhere could be considered being used for terrorism. For instance, let's say India was a huge trading partner with US. Even then there would be transfers to US without taking all the trouble of H1B fees and tuition. The money would eventually make it back to Pakistan. Likewise, even if India didn't exist there is no reason to believe US would not give Pakistan a few outdated aircrafts. That is why slightly more objective measures are used. The usual idea is that when the donor knows that the money will be directly used for terrorism.
Secondly, the thing about Indians needing to do their own stuff instead of copy pasting socialism/free market etc. is essentially capitalism. The idea of capitalism is not that you pursue the exact same ideas and industries from other nations but do your own stuff and let others do their stuff. So no contradiction there.
Abi,
ReplyDeleteFor 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. 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
Prof,
ReplyDeleteI could not access the blogspot domain. BSNL also blocked it.
-Akilan
Venkataramani,
ReplyDeleteYour Idea is also not working for me!!
I am able to access both Geocities and Blogspot
ReplyDelete17/07/2006 11:55 PM
Thoothukudi (using BSNL Broadband)
I from hyd and use sify and i am blocked..... however currently i am surfing using shysurfer. thats the only anonymous surfer which allowed me to make posts. Most of them allow u to just surf.
ReplyDeleteAbi: I am having a vacation at Srirangam, near Trichy 350 km soithwest of Chennai. I am able to access yours (as u can see) and all of our friends who have blogspot accounts without any problem.
ReplyDeleteMore upon my return to chennai, in two days
This report says that mobile phones are also targeted:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.physorg.com/news72460837.html
thank you guys
ReplyDeleteyou did a great job
all of you
Prof,
ReplyDeleteWhy r u not posting anything for past 3 days. Busy??