digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

Indian Government Blocks Blogs

boingboing.net — India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) passed an order to ISPs Friday to block several websites. Including Blogspot, Typepad and Geocities.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • mayhemt, on 10/12/2007, -8/+75Another example of 'what happens if retards run the goverments'....
    looks like all the governments are competing for 'the most insane-dumbest government when it comes to internet control'...
    • arunforce, on 10/12/2007, -14/+24Chinaism has infected India!
    • flash200, on 10/12/2007, -7/+123Not wanting to be outdone, India has decided to give the US and China a run for their money. Said one Indian official, who spoke on condition of not being quoted, "If there's any country in the world that can avoid getting a useful benefit out of the internet, it's certainly us. Not those other silly countries."

      Reportedly, the US government was outraged by this news, and threatened to disable all telephone lines and cable lines in their own country. "The thing you have to understand," said a Senator from Alaska, "is that these series of tubes are bad for the truck business." One thing is clear, the US will not take this challenge to its bureaucratic ineffectiveness lightly.

      The Chinese government responded in turn by making a public proclamation that fire, and all technology derived from it, has now been banned by the government. Said one Chinese official, "Top that!"
    • helikopter, on 10/12/2007, -6/+16bravo, flash, bravo.
    • captainsparrow, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13I totally agree . For a democracy like India, this is a shame.. censoring is different from blocking/ banning..if media ain't free, fear creeps in..and it wont be a democracy no more...cant watch India walking in the footsteps of china
    • hchaudh1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10This is very sad. The reason lies not only with dumb politicians but also dumb implementation of policy. Basically, the Indian govt. had sent a list of 22 blogs/sites that it wanted blocked and the ISP's just blocked the entire domain. I hope this will be corrected soon.
      Not that I condone the blocking of the 22 sites. Opinion, no matter how counter culturalistic, or hard to swallow must be allowed to be expressed.
      The good out of this is that Indian bloggers have filed an application for release the list of the 22 sites blocked. I am very interested to know which sites were officially blocked and why? I have a suspicision that this could have something to do with recent bombings in India. For now, I guess its wait and see.
    • KrakPot, on 10/12/2007, -20/+4When will you guys wake up and realize that this is a step in the right direction? How can we possibly have a safe internet environment if people are allowed to say whatever they want? I hope that it is only a matter of time before the US starts blocking unwanted websites.
    • cdawzrd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3you forgot the sarcasm tags.
    • gurijala, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Two sources, one inside the Government of India and the other kind of inside/outside have confirmed to the Mutiny, that ISPs are being instructed to ‘control’ access to blogspot. It seems that some blogs are being used by some terror units (read SIMI) to communicate.

      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’m sorry; I can’t give you any more details or updates unless we hear from our sources. They have indicated they won’t on this topic but we are trying.

      source: http://mutiny.wordpress.com/2006/07/17/blog-blackout/
    • ManishV, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"the Indian govt. had sent a list of 22 blogs/sites that it wanted blocked"

      22 *pages* of sites, according to news reports, not 22 sites.
    • greenreefer, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0India has so many terrorist groups, they compete for the credit for bombings. Very bad comedy.

      These men who inspire these poor dumb kids to blow themselves up have got to go.

      I would be in favor of doing a lot more than shutting down their websites. But it is a start.

    • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Maybe we should block all those Indian customer service outsourcers.
  • cyanidenfs, on 10/12/2007, -25/+6WTF?! Impossible!
    Ok, maybe not, but I don't see this getting any support...

    If it is so, well, TOR all the way :)
    • cyanidenfs, on 10/12/2007, -15/+12Couldn't edit it soon enough...

      [quote from someone]
      Two sources, one inside the Government of India and the other kind of
      inside/outside have confirmed to the Mutiny, that ISPs are being
      instructed to 'control' access to blogspot. It seems that some
      blogs are being used by some terror units (read SIMI) to communicate.

      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.

      [unquote]

      Thank God!
    • cyanidenfs, on 10/12/2007, -19/+4Edit...The sites are definitely banned...
    • fani, on 10/12/2007, -6/+22Do some research before banging away at the keyboard and posting thrice.
      Don't jump to conclusions first and then go back and edit your own posts.
  • ujwal, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8This sounds strange and undemocratic if true. Quite unlike Indian govt. Could you please provide a URL or source which backs up your claim and explains the governement's view point?
    Thanks
    • sanman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1This type of action doesn't surprise Indians when it comes from the Congress Party. They are not as benevolent and as cuddly as some would like you to think. People need to read about an infamous event in India, known as The Emergency:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Emergency_%281975_-_77%29

      Civil liberties were suspended across the board, and this was supported by some prominent personalities. Read the list of names.
  • hobg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26Ways to get around block:

    Coral Cache: http://mumbaihelp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/
    PK Blogs: http://pkblogs.com/mumbaihelp
    Altavista Translate: http://world.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=en_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmumbaihelp.blogspot.com
  • badmojoman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I'm also surprised by this "all-or-nothing" type of response. not sure how closely it's tied into the train bombings in Mumbai recently, but there were reports that India suspected Pakastani militants of orchestrating the attacks. If they feel that the conspirators (whomever they may be) tried to use blogs to coordinate the attacks, that may be why they've taken such a radical step.
    Begs the question: when do other governments or administrative organizations take similar stands? What events propel them to make such decisions?
    • sanman, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Bear in mind, that this is a Left-wing led govt, and Left-wingers tend to freak out under duress. Anybody read "The Sum of All Fears" by Tom Clancy, and can remember how the President behaved after the terror attack in that story?
    • greenreefer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Blocking the domain will force the blogsites/websites to accept responsibility and police themselves, or be out.

      This is a war people.
      These terror groups are not playing.

      It will take sacrifice and cooperation.
    • kp3469, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1sanman said:
      "and Left-wingers tend to freak out under duress."

      define freak out. does "freak out" include ignoring the Geneva convention? does it include possibly illegal wiretaps on its own citizens? does it include mining the phone records of millions of its citizens? does it include allowing torture of prisoners? does it include the use of secret prisons for suspected terrorists? 'cause i'm pretty sure all of the above were brought to you by Mr. Right Winger himself, Geroge W.
  • DaffyDuck, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Perhaps ironically, that article is blocked here at work.
    • w3bslinger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0same here :) anonymouser helped me there
  • Khilona, on 10/12/2007, -5/+9WTF. I cannot access my blog anymore. Grrr
    • gib786, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7khilona - your name made me think of mohammad rafi's track, hehehe (feel free to digg down if you dont know what the hell im talkin about)
  • baystreet7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3It Is True. I notice this about a week ago looking in my sitemeter and were the traffic from my blog at blogspot was coming from. I notice that http://pkblogs.com kepted coming up and they were using it to gain access to my blog. This article just turned a light bulb on in my head!

    Digg!
  • jellygraph, on 10/12/2007, -16/+9wow, the indian government sucks
  • kd1s, on 10/12/2007, -22/+4Well then - this explains why I never seem to get any hits from India or China on my blog.

    If you look at the history of India it becomes clear that their communist sympathies still run deep. After all, post independence India got lots of help from the USSR. Now they're moving very quickly into a capitalist society and many people are being left behind, pining for the days of socialist India.

    If India allowed blogs it's pro-capitalism government would tumble, and goodbye to all those outsourcing contracts.
    • galtroarc, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8@kd1s

      Wow..How did u arrive at that conclusion??? Your analysis was admirably succinct and quick though deeply flawed - classic ill-informed armchair analysis.

      Yet...It was fun how in 3-4 sentences u brought in the USSR and communism, captilalism, hits on your blog , concluded that India doesn't allow blogs and laid out the path to snip those outsourcing contracts...you have a talent bro...very reminiscent of Bush's speeches.

      And..about those hits from India or China on your blog [you set yourself up here], who are you?? And why should Indians and Chinese [ or anybody else for that matter] care?

      Dude! Seriously...India blocked these websites [wrongly and alarmingly ]starting a couple of days ago...and not all blogs! You on the other hand have probably been unpopular forever.

      Think before you shoot bro.

    • w3bslinger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0kd1 >> Errr .. may be cos ur blog stinks too much so that it can be sensed even via RF !?
  • kedaar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I can log on to my account at blogspot.com. But can not access any of my bolgs at *.blogspot.com
    It must be some stupid reason.
    If you remember Indian Government had blocked entire yahoo groups instead of blocking particular group.
  • RuBot, on 10/12/2007, -2/+31I'm an Indian & I'm very shocked by this.

    But this is ridiculous! I'm from a democratic country & this isn't how civilized societies are supposed to act.

    These fuclers have chose the wrong generation to pick a fight with. This isn't over yet. See how in the next few days the public outcry would teach the bastards who's the boss in a democratic society.

    If we Indians are good with anything, it is kicking our government's balls!
    • tackle, on 10/12/2007, -27/+3grow up.
    • hchaudh1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Chill out man. Maybe this has something to do with the recent bombings. You have to see that Google has a research center there and it just does not make sense for the govt. to drive away good business.
    • RuBot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@ hchaudh1

      I know I may be overreacting but knowing the Indian babus, it is better that we're on our guards.

      And besides, this isn't the first time the myopic government would have done more harm to India. The Babus & Netas wouldn't blink an eyelid in driving Google out of India. When was the last time these parasites called Politicians have done anything selflessly.
    • greenreefer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Mr RuBot, Sir
      There is a war on, in case you hadn't noticed.
      On the brink, right now, about 50 countries.
      Including yours.
      Right now.
      Pick a side.



  • bobsil1, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4kd1s - that's so lame. You get no hits from India/China because they're probably not interested in your particular blog. Those who are most socialist, the rural poor, are not bloggers. This is not likely a permanent ban, rather an idiotic overbroad ban on specific blogs.
  • amed, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4whats next? block POrno websites????

    that would defeat the purpose of the Internet
    • flash200, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3In a nutshell, you can have an oppressive regime, or you can have the internet, but in the long run you can't have both. It's not possible to have useful technology without allowing some of the freedoms that it creates. Conversely, it's not possible to remove all freedoms from a technology, without losing 99.9% of the usefulness the technology has.

      A larger population requires a greater amount of control over the population, and a greater restriction on freedoms, for the government to remain in power. What common thread do India, the US, and China have--besides recent efforts to restrict the internet? They're the three largest countries in the world by population:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population
  • nachowski, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4This is pathetic. And I *know* for a fact that calling up the imbeciles who work at my ISP (BSNL) will not understand a thing I say. These idiots are the same people who tried to convince me that I'd get a 256kbps upstream speed on a 256kbps ADSL line.
    • hchaudh1, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6So Indians hate Indian tech support too [RIMSHOT] LOL
  • kurotenshi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6This just seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to last week's bombings...hopefully this will pass as they implement a more precise approach at blocking what I imagine is their concern...hate filled blogs and such.

    We had, still are, having a few knee jerk reactions here in the states as well.
  • davdav, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4So much for worrying about India as a leader in technology!
    • ManishV, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4As in the U.S., the private sector is much more technically skilled than the gov't (heard about the FBI computer sys?)
  • AlbinoRaven, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Actually it makes sense if you are a country deciding to go to war with another country.

    Look at how the Iraqis conflict was changed over blogging. All it took was a local blogger to look out the window and watch troops walking down their streets. They publish the troop movements in the area (instantly) and give away intel on location/size/support. Exact same thing is happening right now in Lebanon, people are sitting there by their computers looking out their windows tracking troop movements and typing it into their blogs. pajamasmedia.com is an awesome look at how a computer/wifi can illustrate army intel without the army intel infrastructure (satellites, drones, billion dollar toys) in the curent Israeli/Lebanese conflict.

    It doesn't take much effort to understand that most countries realise that information (doesn't matter if it's the price of apple or a tank rolling down the road) is immediate now. When you need to, erm, invade a countryh or be prepared to be invaded by a country, (that ryhmes with takisistan), you don't want your local population giving away the location of your troops. In fact at that time you want to limit communication and control the in's and out's. I wouldn't be surprised if there are government psyops pounding keyboards right now relaying real troop movement with wrong locations and or numbers.

    Just a thought
    • HisEminence, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Wouldn't the local population be kinda dumb to reveal the position of their own troops? "Controlling" blogspot doesn't translate into military effectiveness.
    • AlbinoRaven, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2HisEminence sayd:
      "Wouldn't the local population be kinda dumb to reveal the position of their own troops? "Controlling" blogspot doesn't translate into military effectiveness."

      That depends on a couple of things. Is 100% of your population unbribable? Is 100% of the population loyal to the country? Does the blogger have other motives like fame or fortune? There are 6.5 billion people running around on earth and I doubt that any of them view how information should be shared the same way. Somewhere like India, individual values get a little "fuzzy" on the border between India and Pakistan it becomes important to limit the communication of the locals. Remember the limits you are seeking to impose are not in New Delhi or Bombay, it's in provinces like Kashmir. Unfortunately, everyone in the general public has to be removed from the roster of information providers because if you target a region people tend to put two and two together. So you do everyone and focus on the region you need to limit information.

      However doesn't seem to stop current bloggers in other countries in conflict right now, the same rules are in effect (aka no blogs). The Blogger just uses another technology to enable their blogging, like a proxy browser service.

      The main point would be to limit any intel from the local population base and control the flow of information. Control the information like a tap. On or Off. Clean or Poison. Doesn't really matter, the main point is to control the flow of information available.

      The first Iraqi conflict in 1990, something like general contractors supplying the US troops with field rations wouldn't have been an issue because the mechanism to share that sort of information did not exist unless by accident (media leak).

      Today all it takes is one really pissed off employee, a blog, some email contacts to give the drop points of where rations are being distributed to (people have to eat right). Any army logistics officer worth their salt can take the volume of food shipped and take an educated guess to how many people are on the ground in a location.

      So in order to counteract that, army procurement has to order three shipments to fake drop points and then re-route those shipments back to the soldiers using internal army channels, rather than using a contractors channels. Mainly because people like talking too much on line/cell phones/in general.

      The real question should be. Why are they limiting blogs? What other things are they doing in the background that they can control? Are they using filters on the application switches, mail caching routers to screen emails, intelligent airgaps, mail route software. Most North Americans would like to think of India as an ass-backward goat herding nation. Which is light years from the truth, all of the products I mentioned are developed/engineered/built in India. And there's one thing about security/surveillance products in India, the Indian government gets first crack at them before they are sold UK/State-side. Test locally and then ship
  • riplikethat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Meh!.. I don't think anyone understands the way we Indians treat our government. Just recently in 2 different events (read=***** up management retarded politics) people ripped this government apart protesting day and night (they got what they wanted).

    If this banning goes on long enough, or they try to ***** up our system like China, I see this government going down faster than Bush's ratings. Has to be the most pussified government with a shy little PM that refuses to act strictly on anything.. not to mention they are ignoring the middle class a lot lately. Idiots.
  • arkavat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I don't think its a long term ban... Indian government is just being cautious after the bombing in mumbai... it is trying to avoid enraged people blogging against the bombing and spread hatred against Islam..
    We don't want another godra riot in India...
    Also we have a right to information act.. which forces the government to explain each and every move it makes.. so i guess the truth should be out in a day or two...
  • anonydigg, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1They took pride in one and only one strength and that was democracy. Well... I guess it's back to dirty India.
  • kedaar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I can bet they will take more that week to realise this and open it back to people of India.
  • piper5ul, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The right to Information act here http://persmin.nic.in/RTI/WelcomeRTI.htm doesn't guarantee that disclosures will always happen.

    most notably
    "What is not open to disclosure?
    The following is exempt from disclosure [S.8)]

    1. information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offense "

    This is standard practice and all govts do this. The thing to find out is if its really temporary and if the so called "SIMI"ans in question are using the bypass routes like everyone else and rendering the ban somewhat of a nuisance.
  • robwistar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3geocities is still in business?
  • echimu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Lessons for Indian bloggers/blogspot.com/typepad user
    If you are serious about blogging get your blog software from wordpress.org (free) and get cheap domain ($1.99) and hosting at godadday ( less than $50 pa)

    As far as ban concern; they will reorder it sooner or later (may be one week more)
  • InTeGeR13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I still can't figure out why this ban has been brought into place... Is it to stop terrorists communicating or it is to stop angry Mumbai-ites blogging against the terrorists...?

    Anyway, hope the smoke clears up in a day or two... the present government has a huge "negative-digg" collection anyway.

    Still... the fellows could have informed why they were doing this and all...
  • fjc8, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2I guess this means America retakes its spot as the world's biggest democracy!
    • ManishV, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Right after they stop listening to Americans' phone calls ;)
  • masteryoda, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Aha it is interesting even Boingboing is blocked and I cant even open Google :-( Damn you DOT
    • decay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2uSe A PROXY I think (sOrry my keyboard is broken :))

      HIDEMYASS.COM
  • Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Kudos to India for blocking Geocities.
  • bvsingh, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Bloggers in India are getting together to protest against the sudden blocking of popular Google-owned blog-hosting site Blogger by some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Spectranet, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Reliance Powersurfer, Airtel Broadband and Sify.

    On July 15, Mridula Dwivedi, a teacher of management studies in Gurgaon first discovered that visiting any blogspot blog -- such as, say Mumbai Help -- returned the message, 'Site Blocked!' Her ISP, Spectranet, confirmed they had blocked some sites based on government directives.

    J Grewal, Spectranet's Delhi representative at the National Internet exchange of India, told this reporter that, on July 15, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had sent ISPs a list of sites to be blocked. R H Sharma, senior engineer with MTNL, said the list ran into some 22 pages.

    Now, several bloggers have organised themselves into a Bloggers' Collective and are planning to file a Right To Information application to obtain the list.

    Anil Saxena of Spectranet confirmed that the list sent by the DoT contained names of particular blogs, but added that Blogspot as a whole had not been blocked. This is contrary to the experience of customers like Dwivedi, who are still unable to view sites hosted on Blogspot, in addition to those on Typepad and Yahoo!'s Geocities. "The list is confidential and I can't make it public," said Saxena.

    Under the Information Technology Act, 2000, a body called the Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-IN, was created along the lines of similar authorities the world over. Although its main task is in the domain of Internet security, it also oversees Internet censorship under a clause that seeks to ensure 'balanced flow of information.' Any government department seeking a block on any web site has to approach CERT-IN, which then instructs the DoT to block the site after confirming the authenticity of the complaint.

    Web sites can be blocked if they contain pornography, speeches of hate, contempt, slander or defamation, or if they promote gambling, racism, violence or terrorism.

    "Such sites may be blocked within the provisions of the Fundamental Right to free speech and expression, granted in India's Constitution," said cyber-law expert Praveen Dalal, adding, "If, however, the blocking is arbitrary, unreasonable and unfair, it would be in violation of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India."

    The trouble is bloggers don't even know which sites the DoT wants blocked. To make matters worse, ISPs seem to be blocking entire domains on which these blogs are hosted.

    In 2003, one of the first things CERT-IN did was to approve the blocking of an obscure mailing list run by a banned militant outfit, the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) of the Khasi tribe in Meghalaya. Ironically, the popularity and visibility of the list went up by leaps and bounds, despite it being blocked by all ISPs. Many could still see the list via email or proxy surfing.

    This time, something similar seems to have happened, to not one but three domains. However, CERT-IN's Director, Dr Gulshan Rai, said he was unaware of the problem and would not be able to respond "off-hand". In a telephone interview, he told this reporter, "Somebody must have blocked some sites. What is your problem?"

    Bloggers certainly think of it as a problem though, and are all set to react.
    • flash200, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Good comment, but dugg down because the length of it makes it tough to navigate the page.
  • bharaths7, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3*****!
    I cant access my blog!
    Govt of India, you are stupid to block blogspot, did u think that terrorists use blogs instead of using highly secure servers,
    Me being Indian, i say this is one heck of a move by the Indian Govt.
    Please, give back blogspot.
    Give me back my blog
  • SmeRndmGy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This is like a microcosm of what is happening in the US. First they get attacked by terrorists, then everyone gets scared, then the government unreasonably limits the freedoms of their own people in the name of security. It just happened a lot faster there and they took it much farther than we have, although maybe something like this is the true purpose of the anti-net neutrality laws.
    • megaloid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I agree. Everywhere in the world today, liberty is on the ropes because the elitists who control political machines are fundamentally, implacably hostile to the idea of masses of people beyond their control. They are absolute control freaks, living life the only way they know how, that is, "managing" and "planning" the affairs of other people.

      The tragedy of this elitist doctrine is two-fold; firstly, because of the suffering it inflicts upon multitudes of unsuspecting people, and secondly, because the sheer evil of it is totally unseen by its practicioners. They see the Hegelian problem-reaction-solution cycle that you describe as the only avenue for human evolution, carefully overseen by their institutions, of course. Ironically, they think they are moving human evolution forward, but because of their tragic inability to evaluate their own actions ethically, they are actually trying to push humanity back into the despotic, hyper-controlled, tyrannical structures of the ancient world.

      God, what a terrible thing it is foment fear and suffering in human beings. For the sake of those who take it upon themselves to scheme this way, it would be better if they never even existed because a world that has overcome dialectical reasoning has no place for them. What will they do? Play golf?
    • flash200, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@megaloid

      As healthy, constructive online communities gradually take shape, I think there will start to be fewer such people in the world. It may take decades, but eventually, more and more people will realize the advantages of having the bulk of the population working with them for mutual benefit, as opposed to being in direct opposition to the rest of the world.

      It's a simple matter of numbers: Would you rather have everyone in the world trying to help lift you up (cooperative society), or trying to squash you underfoot (zero-sum game)?

      The history of civilization is about the weak uniting for common benefit and protection against the strong. The internet allows this to happen on a global scale. And new generations are on the way that will have grown up immersed in the possibilities this creates. 20 or 40 years from now, social change may be feasible on a scale that was never before possible in human history.
    • megaloid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+120 to 40 years? Do we have that long to get our act together? I fervently hope so.
    • flash200, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Me too

      I think the amount of social change needed is roughly equivalent in scale to moving the Himalayas intact to Australia. In that sense, 20 - 40 years would be pretty quick, but I give us a favorable chance.
  • redfan, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2India has been censoring stuff for years. Movies, television, and so on. That on top of being ruled by one party for all but about six years of the sixty since independence, and that "world's largest democracy" tag seems more than murky.
    • hchaudh1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Yes India has been censoring movies since forever. But so does every country. As far as the 1 party rule stuff, I don't think that's true at all. Do a Wiki search or something.
      In the last elections, the popularly elected Prime Minister was an Italian born female christian. Yes, the other politicians riled the foreigner issue and she stepped aside for another candidate, but it does go to show not all is bad with Indian democracy. Not to mention the fact that the current Prime minister and President are a Sikh and a Moslem respectively, not exactly from the majority.
      Indian democracy is far from being perfect, but to paint it with such a broad brush as being murky is kind of knee jerk. Heck even in America, I think it will be quite some time before it gets a non-christian, non-white, female President. Just saying....
    • redfan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Not every country censors movies. For all of the stick the FCC gets in the US (most of it rightly so), movies have mostly been off-limits here. And remind me again how many Indian states banned "The Da Vinci Code" from theaters? At least four or five, I believe.

      IIRC, Congress only lost in 1977, 1989, and 1996. Neither lasted for very long before Congress was back in power. And yes Sonia Gandhi was elected in 2004... and was so well-liked that she was forced to step aside and not become PM.

      Look nothing against India, but there are a lot of questionable policies for what is supposed to be a democracy. It's nothing that's affected me personally when I've been there, but India seems to be slowly learning that openness and capitalism have some advantages over the history of central economic and social controls that have previously been the norm.
    • masteryoda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Name one country which does not control the media.
  • geox, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1i dont seee this on major news networks or sites here further funny i can access blogspot just fine
  • prattboy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Maybe the U.S. would be a better place if *.blogspot.com, *.typepad.com and geocities.com/* were blocked, too! Add myspace.com/* to that block list, and I think you'd be on your way to making the Internet more useful.
  • xserver2003, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2ITS A RUMOUR... I M FROM DOT ADMINISTRATION. NO ORDERS TO US.
  • xserver2003, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1if it is gonna be.. then i m gonna quit my job, and start a revolution against it :
  • 9tailfox, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1Those Curry eating Krishna praising fuks.
    • mv36, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Hello you must be India's border friends from across the north east then ?
    • sidnangia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1there goes my vote for this stupid government .....
      damn them , cant even access my own blog
  • larchoye, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1CENSORSHIP IS THE PUREST FORM OF EVIL
  • xserver2003, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1rofl.. u right.. politicians are a joke here.. we gotta teach those muthafukers
  • xserver2003, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1i m gonna kill the information minister.. thats my public announcement. u gotta count on me. Just wait and see if this bill is passed in parliament
  • xserver2003, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2AMERICA TAKES BIGGEST SPOT OF DEMOCRACY ??????? U SURE LOL.. i think it acts as a NAZI NATION AFTER BUSH WAS ELECTED 5 YRS AGO.
  • xserver2003, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@hchaudh1

    prime minister is not elected by the people in india. It is the political party people vote for and the electrol panel votes for the PM. but there was the opposition scurfin about sonia's ITALIAN origin.
  • xserver2003, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2STILL ACCESSIBLE BY MY ISP. ITS THE India's LARGEST (BSNL)
  • xserver2003, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2we know about web anonymizers.. we aint stupid ok. We know how things werk.
  • RuBot, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3***** Politicians; The cancer that infects our society. May all of them burn in hell.

    Ad Indian politicians too.....
  • sanman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Pakistan has been blocking blogs and various sites too:

    http://www.help-pakistan.com/main/

    Looks like it's a wider epidemic.
  • Matt-lars, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Is it 1984 already? Oh how the time flys..
  • sophiaperennis, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1India spelled backwards = Not so smart.
  • ebola, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Next, in Indian news. Google, yahoo, msn blocked. So much for a "democracy".
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 59 of 59 discussions
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.