Why the Internet censorship
Anivar Aravind
As news of the blockade spread to the national and international
media, Indian bloggers -- organised under the Bloggers Against
Censorship banner -- continued to devise a strategy to counter it.
Some have filed Right to Information applications, while others are
considering a Public Interest Litigation. They say they are against
any kind of censorship, even that of non-blog Web sites such as
HinduUnity.org
Interestingly, the Indian consulate in New York has also sought to
explain the ban. According to e-mail sent by A R Ghanashyam, deputy
consul general, to a representative of the South Asian Journalists
Association, a write up containing derogatory references to Islam and
had the potential to inflame religious sensitivities, had appeared on
a blog.
DoT took up the matter but, because of a technological error, ISPs
went beyond what was expected of them, resulting in 'the unfortunate
blocking of all blogs.'
HinduUnity.org and HinduHumanRights.org are among 17 sites sought to
be blocked, on the grounds that they are spreading Hindu nationalist
propaganda. Accessed through an anonymizer, HinduUnity.org was found
to have articles against Congress party President Sonia Gandhi and
Indian Muslims. It also had a 'hit list' of people it considered
anti-Hindu.
Another site on the list is Rahulyadav.com, set up by a US-based
person who calls himself a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
Dalitstan.org, on the other hand, calls itself a 'human rights
organisation working for the upliftment of Dalits.'
None of the sites seem to possess any direct security threat to India,
or have any connection with the recent Mumbai blasts. Even more
bizarre are the blogs sought to be blocked. 'Princess Kimberley' is a
defunct blog with just two postings in 2004 about an American
teenager's depressing life. 'Commonfolk Commonsense' is a Chinese
language blog, while 'Exposing the Left' is written by someone in
Southern Illinois!
DoT has not explained why these sites need to be restricted from
viewing by Indians
And a new post in exposingleft.blogspot.com says that they are very
happy because of the ban in india and they got a dranstic increase in
viewership.
The list of sites blocked
1. http://www.hinduunity.org
2. http://mypetjava.mu.nu
3. http://pajamaeditors.blogspot.com
4. http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com
5. http://thepiratescove.us
6. http://commonfolkcommonsense.blogspot.com
7. http://bamapachyderm.com
8. http://prinesskimberly.blogspot.com
9. http://merrimusings.typepad.com
10. http://mackers-world.com
11. http://dalitstan.com
12. http://hinduhumanrights.org/hindufocus.html
13. http://nndh.com (fax scan unclear, could be wrong)
14. http://bloodroyaltriped.com
15. http://imagessearchyahoo.com
16. http://imamali8.com
17. http://rahulyadav.com
Number 15 on that list, imagessearchyahoo.com, is a typo for
image.search.yahoo.com, Yahoo!'s image search site. The typo domain is
also owned by Yahoo!. Searching for images via a typo of the domain
name is against the national interest? I'd love to see how the
government justifies this one.
But most of the media reported it as these sites are terrorist sites
& it is inorder to stop terrorists in the light of mumbai bomb blast.
but i still belive that no censorship will work over internet
Anivar Aravind
http://movingrepublic.org