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Indian Government Lifts Ban on Blogs

Posted by Zonk on Thu Jul 20, 2006 01:19 PM
from the i-have-a-soapbox-and-i-must-speak dept.
iDope writes "The Department of Telecommunications of the Government of India has lifted the ban on blogs (reported previously on Slashdot) following pressure from the Indian blogger community and the media. Even with the lifting of the ban several bloggers from BloggersCollective are getting ready to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) (similar to a Class Action Lawsuit in US) in the Supreme Court of India against the Government censorship of the Internet."

Related Stories

[+] India Joins China in Censoring Websites 303 comments
cpatil writes "On the directions of the government of India, Indian ISPs have started censoring and blocking web properties. This was first noticed by Indian bloggers and upon inquiring with their respective ISPs, the actions are confirmed. Unfortunately, Blogspot and TypePad are the targets till now." There's an ongoing discussion of the censorship on GoogleGroups. The rediff.com coverage linked above indicates that the blocking is based on a list issued by India's Department of Telecommunications.
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  • We are rejoicing! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tackhead (54550) on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:23PM (#15751481)
    "In bureaucratic India, overlords who are first at posting are pleased to be welcoming you!"
    - Steve.

    (Yes I am really being named Steve, and the weather here in Bango...r, Maine is wonderful! We in America are overjoyed to be reading this and posting about it on your Slashdot!)

  • Good news, I guess (Score:3, Informative)

    by ChaosCube (862389) on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:25PM (#15751494)
    (http://www.bdrgear.com/)
    Even though I don't live in India, this is good. I'm all for people saying whatever the hell they want, regardless of any governmental restrictions or intrusions. Now, if only we could get the government off our backs here in the states...
  • Great ... now ... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Guanine (883175) on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:25PM (#15751500)
    (http://www.tumbledry.org/)
    How about China, with one fifth of the world's population, learns from this and stops censoring their internet, allowing Chinese citizens to fully participate in the online world community?
    • I doubt it (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Silent sound (960334) on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:39PM (#15751600)
      What we are seeing here is the difference between a democratic government like India (which has things like elected officals eventually accountable to their constituents and thus amenable to influence by public pressure; and an independent judiciary with the power to check the elected officials if they violate the citizenry's fundamental rights), and a state like China.

      Democracies can be imperfect; democracies like India can make mistakes, or do things (like this Blog censorship program) which are wrong. But at least in a democracy, there is some kind of mechanism in place that can be used to eventually fix the mistakes and correct the wrongs. China has no mechanisms in place to correct the wrongs of those in power. And so you can wait, but the wrongs are not going to just go away.
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:I doubt it by Luscious868 (Score:2) Thursday July 20 2006, @02:08PM
      • Re:I doubt it by gardyloo (Score:2) Thursday July 20 2006, @02:09PM
      • Re:I doubt it by tinker_taylor (Score:3) Thursday July 20 2006, @03:40PM
      • Re:I doubt it by borner (Score:1) Thursday July 20 2006, @11:31PM
    • Re:Great ... now ... by vancondo (Score:1) Thursday July 20 2006, @01:42PM
    • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.
  • keep up the coverage :) (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Burlap (615181) on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:34PM (#15751551)
    I really hope /. keeps up on the coverage of this story if it goes to court. It would be quite entertaining to see a govt get it's hat handed to them for strongarming their population.
  • by digitaldc (879047) * on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:35PM (#15751566)
    ...against the US Mainstream Media?
  • Finally! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Andrewkov (140579) on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:35PM (#15751567)
    Good news! Now we can outsource Blogging to India!
    • Re:Finally! by R083r7r380R (Score:1) Thursday July 20 2006, @08:51PM
  • Official Circular (Score:5, Informative)

    by iDope (916846) * on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:39PM (#15751596)
    Here's the official notice by the Department of Telecom to ISPs to remove the block (http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=18954 [pib.nic.in]):
    July 20, 2006 The Department of Telecom (DoT) has instructed all the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country to block only the specified website/webpages on the parent website. The DoT, in its letter issued to all the ISPs has mentioned that it had come to notice that in some cases the parent website had been blocked in contravention to what was stated in its earlier order dated 13th July 2006 whereby it ordered the ISPs to block certain websites/webpages. As such the DoT has now directed all the ISPs to strictly comply with the order dated 13th July 2006 and provide unhindered access to Internet except for the websites/webpages which have been specifically mentioned in its orders issued from time to time. The DoT has further sought explanation from the erring ISPs as to why action be not taken against them for blocking unintended websites/webpages.
  • Technical error? (Score:1)

    by mathx (988938) on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:39PM (#15751609)
    All the ISPs had the same technical error? How about a technicality error, by the Indian govt, giving incorrect information out?
  • Good, they need the manpower... (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by mobby_6kl (668092) on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:44PM (#15751648)
    to ban movies:

    "India's ruling party takes legal steps to stop a film director from making a movie about Sonia Gandhi." BBC story [bbc.co.uk]
  • If those poor Indian citizens couldn't get their daily supply of Livejournal emo teenagers, I don't know *what* they would have done. Peaceful protests or some-such - oh, wait, they did.
  • It's always a ruse (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by MikeRT (947531) on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:56PM (#15751732)
    (http://www.codemonkeyramblings.com/)
    They walk the good talk about public safety, terrorism, etc., but it's always just a ruse to get their foot in the door of censorship. Blocking a blog won't stop the terrorists behind it. Racist speech is only dangerous when it gets the mystique that comes only from being banned by hand-wringing bureaucrats who are open about fearing it.

    Repeat after me, censorship is always bad except in the most extreme cases like publishing a how-to FAQ on building a portable nuclear bomb or up-to-date troop movements. Why? Because speech never killed anyone and the fastest way to make the very people who might strengthen an idea interested in hearing more is a legislative or executive attack.

    It's a perfect example of why "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" is a bad argument. People quickly turn to the "anti-racist/sexist/anti-homosexual/terrorist" state and say, "what are you trying to hide?"
  • Playing The Freedom Angle (Score:4, Interesting)

    by blueZhift (652272) on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:57PM (#15751743)
    (http://bluezhift.proliphus.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday January 31 2007, @10:25AM)
    This is certainly good news for the Indians, but I wonder if this will be good for business too. Right now I would guess that China and India are pretty fierce competitors for offshored business from the West. China holds the edge right now in manufacturing, while IT related work seems to be India's forte (I reserve the right to be completely wrong about this). I don't really see manufacturing moving to India any time soon, but I think there is some pressure for more IT to go to China where the workers are increasingly cheaper than those in India as Indian wages increase due to high demand.

    But I would guess that the less than free and open society in China coupled with China being looked upon, by the U.S. at least, as a dangerous competitor on the world stage, is putting a brake on IT work freely flowing into China. Seriously, China and the U.S. could be at war tomorrow if Taiwan declared independence. India can play this to their advantage by doing as much as possible to resemble the free and open society that Americans claim to love so much. India is, afterall, the world's largest democracy, so playing the freedom angle isn't too much of a stretch with the right marketing.

    I'm not saying that there is any concious orchestration going on. But stories like censoring the internet don't help the image the government probably wants to project, so reversing that can only be to their advantage.
  • alls well that ends well (Score:2, Interesting)

    by rucs_hack (784150) on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:59PM (#15751753)
    (http://code.google.com/p/nmod/)
    The indian government took a wrong step there, it's good they reversed the decision.

    We're all having to learn how the internet works. Governments, great lumbering beasts that they are, are prone to dumb decisions when it comes to new technology, at least at first.

    I wonder what unseen pressure group was responsible for that. Google's blogspot was blocked. Hmm, I do wonder what microsoft were whispering in the ear of indian politicians before the decision.
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • So (Score:2)

    by antifoidulus (807088) on Thursday July 20 2006, @02:01PM (#15751764)
    (http://slashdot.org???? | Last Journal: Saturday August 12 2006, @03:06AM)
    can snakes even manufacture boots? I mean, the whole insult is just kind of silly. Snakes can BECOME boots, but there is no way they can hand-make boots.
  • Did anyone RTFA ? (Score:5, Informative)

    by genmax (990012) on Thursday July 20 2006, @02:08PM (#15751817)
    So, the article says that ..

    a) The govt. had infact NOT asked for all blogs to be banned. It was just ISPs being clueluess. Repeat after me .. the blanket ban on blogspot and typepad was in ERROR ... the ISPs' mistake .. not the big bad govt's.

    b) The govt. had infact asked for 20 odd blogs and sites to be blocked - these were allegedly trying to incite hatred against certain minority communities, by blaming them for the recent bomb blasts in Mumbai. It was felt that such hate campaigns may lead to a violent reprisal against these communities.

    c) While banning said sites may also be an attack of freedom of speech (though I think this is similar to the ban on Nazi propoganda in Germany). it is NOT in the same league as that in China and North Korea.

    d) This (and by this, I mean blocking the original 20 sites, not the whole of blogspot, etc) is ALSO different from the US govt's reaction after 9/11. There was no attempt to use temporary public anger to justify aggression, infact quite the opposite - the govt. has tried to defuse such tensions and ensure sanity prevails.
  • The Government will let you post on your blog until they see fit to add it to their blacklist.

    So while you will still be able to pick up your buddies favorite curry recipe, anything really interesting or political will go back to being blacklisted.

    Awesome.

  • by Vellmont (569020) on Thursday July 20 2006, @02:11PM (#15751848)
    In a previously highly rated post [slashdot.org] a reader claimed that democracy doesn't guarantee freedom. From a strict standpoint, he's absolutely right. But democracy makes freedom MUCH easier to attain since in general people want freedom and not opression. I think this reversal of the policy nicely illustrates that. As several others have pointed out, contrast this with a country like China where there's no democracy, and the government keeps a tight grip on its citizens. It's like the addage that money doesn't buy happiness, but the corollary is that it makes it whole lot easier.
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  • Legitimate Ban (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 20 2006, @02:22PM (#15751907)
    Either people aren't reading the article or are completely oblivious to recent events.

    Trains in Mumbai (Bombay) were recently bombed in what many people suspect was an act of Islamist terrorism to further the separation/Islamistization of Kashmir.

    The blogs in question were inciting violence against India's muslim population in response to the train attacks. The blocking of these blogs were done to prevent the incitement of retalliatory attacks and to prevent the issue from escalating into an unmanageble situation like what is currently happening in Israel/Lebanon. I for one think this is the only legitimate use of censorship and applaud the Indian government for its foresight and action.

    Many people fail to realize that India is not only the world's largest democracy and for the most part has a responsible government. Unfortunately, India too often gets lumped in with the Islamist extremests to the west (of India) or the Communist despots to the east (of India).
  • Even though Govt of India ordered to restore acess to blogspot, The 18 sites [wikia.com] that Govt decided to ban is still banned. But for most of those sites & blogs I cant findout reason to block. Still ministry is silent on it. It again the duty of bloggers community to file Right to information Application to know why this ban. The news came on Indian Express [indianexpress.com] Newspaper addresses this issue in some amount. Are Bloggers are happy after removing the threat to their own blogs? If they can block a blog like http://princesskimberley.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com] they can block any of the blog site. Is there Govt have a justification for blocking each & every site? why a website talking about dalit nationalism ( i didn't seen any hate content on http://www.dalitstan.org/ [dalitstan.org] ) is blocked in a country that addreses diversities...? so Indian bloggers must move on this way to ask the reasons for the censorship.
  • (all) blogs were never banned (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nileshbansal (665019) on Thursday July 20 2006, @02:40PM (#15752033)
    (http://www.db.toronto.edu/~nilesh/)

    Govt of India never banned all blogs. After terrorist attack in Mumbai, 22 sites were ordered to be blocked to prevent communal hatred and riots. The order was misinterpreted [hindustantimes.com] by ISPs who blocked blogspot.com (this was just a mistake).

    I am against all kind of govt censoring (including this). But this ban should not be compared to one in China. The two are fundamentally different as India is a democracy and Indian Constitution provides freedom of expression. But this ban was not unconstitutional as freedom of expression does not allow one to spread opinions of hatred.

  • Cool... (Score:1)

    by sid_earth (990028) on Thursday July 20 2006, @03:03PM (#15752192)
    Hurray!!
  • by Jherek Carnelian (831679) on Thursday July 20 2006, @03:26PM (#15752335)
    Great. Now how about the ban on exporting dahl?
  • nice rant (Score:1)

    by zarr0 (990071) on Thursday July 20 2006, @08:06PM (#15753950)
    • Re:nice rant by babumuchhala (Score:1) Thursday July 20 2006, @10:35PM
  • by brate_sanders (985213) on Friday July 21 2006, @01:40AM (#15754921)
    PIL is nothing like Class Action. Class Action is mostly for lawyers to make a lot of money while PIL is for the public good, where lawyers and the plaintiff do it because they care.
  • Re:Okay (Score:3, Informative)

    by rovingeyes (575063) on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:27PM (#15751509)
    Ever hear of wikipedia? Anyways, try this link [wikipedia.org]
    [ Parent ]
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • by deadweight (681827) on Thursday July 20 2006, @01:55PM (#15751727)
    Hate to burst your anarchist bubble, but the reason the Indian Gov't was concerned about annoyed bloggers was because they COULD VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE if the problem was not fixed. Also note that India, like the USA, has rules against the gov't just sending troops in to kill everyone that annoys them. Think about it, Michael Moore might have had an atomic bomb dropped on his lard ass by now otherwise!
    [ Parent ]
  • by rovingeyes (575063) on Thursday July 20 2006, @02:17PM (#15751880)
    can we get electricity/water/food for all the poor people out there who don't even know what a blog is?

    Wow, I have never seen a more rhetorical question from a guy who comes from India and is apparently settled in US (visit his website [tripod.com]). Somehow I feel that you are one of those millions of Indians in US who feels they care about their country and express it in soulless words. If you were all that concerned, you wouldn't be waving racing flags at Nascar races, but instead be in India and help the poor in that country get education or something goddamit.

    [ Parent ]
  • by iDope (916846) * on Thursday July 20 2006, @02:17PM (#15751881)
    If you think this was just about getting some blogs unblocked? This is about government censorship of the Internet (and media in general). It's about freedom to speech. Do you really think overlooking this issue would make India's other problems go away?
    [ Parent ]
  • This shows India is real democracy. Goverment just cannot do anything it likes. What happened may be far from perfect Democracy but still show the difference between India & Chin

    Yeah, or the difference between India and America...

    [ Parent ]
  • You have the right to speak freely using your body, your tools and your property. No law and no politician can change that.

    Actually, yes it can. A human being does not have any god-given de-facto right to own property any more than a llama does. It is the law that gives you right to own property, and the law could just as easily take it away.

    The only "right" you are born with, the only "right" granted to you by nature, is the right to live, think, and die as you please. Any other "rights" you have are granted by the law and/or society, as seen fit by the community as a whole. If there wasn't law and/or general consensus on those "rights" they would not exist.

    [ Parent ]
  • Re:A government (Score:2)

    by The Hobo (783784) on Thursday July 20 2006, @03:14PM (#15752256)
    Refer to this comment [slashdot.org] for some advice.
    [ Parent ]
  • by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) (613870) on Thursday July 20 2006, @03:33PM (#15752382)
    (Last Journal: Monday January 06 2003, @10:36PM)
    I also noticed that most Indian entrepreneurs ignore the business regulations, tax requirements and licensing regulations
    But I'm sure they rapidly remember regulations about property ownership when their hungry neighbors try to grab what they have. Indian businessmen ignore regulations that are not in their favor when it's convenient, not because they are making some anarcho-capitalist point. Just how dumb are you?
    [ Parent ]
  • by sanman2 (928866) on Thursday July 20 2006, @04:19PM (#15752742)
    But like any judiciary, the case has to brought before it.

    You have to bear in mind that this govt is a Left-wing coalition, and so their willingness to resort to things like censorship will be greater.

    The center-right political opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, have in the past championed laws such as the Prasar Bharati Act to protect independence of the media from arbitrary government censorship, precisely because the Indian Left have a long history of playing these types of games.

    That's why the Left favors the notion of big govt at every oppportunity, because they like to use Big Brother tactics on political opponents.

    Read here about the State of Emergency [wikipedia.org] which was declared by the Congress Party in 1977 as a stunt to grab absolute power and arrest political opponents.

    The Supreme Court struck down the Emergency with their court ruling, and despatched law enforcement personnel to arrest Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had re-named her party Congress(I) -- I for Indira.

    [ Parent ]
  • Re:India & China (Score:2)

    by Millenniumman (924859) on Thursday July 20 2006, @05:43PM (#15753273)
    In a pure democracy, the government can do whatever it wants, the government being the majority.

    "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."
    [ Parent ]
  • There was no vote here to reduce government's intrusion -- there was a public outcry and thousands of individuals who were prepared to just violate the law and become criminals. This is what I like to see.

    YOU ARE THE LAST PERSON I AM SAYING THIS TO. DEMOCRACY != VOTING. Democracy = the ability for the people to decide their governmental actions. Thus this was an action of democracy, not the free market. Free marketeers really have very little to gain from preventing the censorship of a myspace or blogger website. In fact, they have nothing to gain, no incentive to try and repeal this. None.
    Here is proof that voting is irrelevant -- you can change government by demanding that they stop what they are doing. Put yourself forward and refuse to accept their law and their regulations and their restrictions on your inherent rights that all humans are born with regardless of their citizenship. You have the right to speak freely using your body, your tools and your property. No law and no politician can change that.

    I'm tempted to "speak freely" by luring you onto my "property", then attacking you with my "tools", and then kicking you with my "body". And you, by principle, should not try and stop me. Anarchy inherently ignores the neighborhood effect or the respect of others' rights.
    Good going, Indians. I just returned from a business trip to India back in March, and I also noticed that most Indian entrepreneurs ignore the business regulations, tax requirements and licensing regulations, too. Here's a competitive country that we should be watching very carefully. They might be living in our mansions and driving our leased cars in a few years. I guess they deserve it, they're the ones loaning us the money to splurge.

    There are two things wrong with this statement:
    1. It's China and Japan lending us the money, not India
    2. This once again assumes that the government does nothing and that anarcho-capitalism works. It doesn't. Look at Somalia as an example of an anarcho-capitalistic country.
    [ Parent ]
  • by Julian Morrison (5575) on Thursday July 20 2006, @06:34PM (#15753585)
    The point libertarians make is that property and self ownership constitute the least possible coercion of any system. Economic and interpersonal activitiy would be limited by consent, but never by imposition.

    Add more freedom, you allow imposition. Take more freedom, and that is an imposition. Libertarian anarchy sits precisely where the curve crosses the zero.
    [ Parent ]
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