Blogger Blocked by Indian ISPs: Google's Site Under Fire

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the blocking of Blogger, Google's blog site, by Indian ISPs following a government order aimed at restricting access to certain inflammatory blogs. Participants share their experiences, reactions, and suggestions regarding the situation, touching on the implications of internet censorship and alternative blogging options.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • One participant reports being unable to access Blogger and notes that ISPs claim a technical glitch prevents them from blocking specific pages without affecting the entire site.
  • Another participant recalls a previous instance of Yahoo Groups being banned in India, prompting questions about the timeline of such actions.
  • Suggestions are made to use proxy servers as a workaround to access blocked content.
  • A participant expresses outrage over the censorship, quoting a line from a video game that critiques information withholding.
  • Some participants mention that while Blogger is currently inaccessible, other blogging platforms like Wordpress and Xanga remain operational.
  • There are reports of intermittent access to Blogger, with some users stating that the blogs are back online, while others continue to experience issues.
  • One participant shares links to proxy servers that could be used to access Blogspot.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of experiences regarding access to Blogger, with some reporting intermittent access while others face ongoing issues. There is no consensus on the effectiveness of the government's actions or the reliability of ISPs.

Contextual Notes

Participants reference past instances of internet censorship in India, indicating a historical context for the current situation. The discussion reflects uncertainty regarding the technical capabilities of ISPs and the government's intentions.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to individuals concerned about internet censorship, bloggers seeking alternative platforms, and those exploring the implications of government regulations on online content.

neutrino
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Not some blogger, but Blogger, Google's blog site. For two days the Live Bookmarks of a couple of blogs that I follow (one being PF's very own string theorist-in-the-making, Dimitri Terryn) weren't loading (and they still don't!), and I wasn't able to access the site as well. Today, while watching the news on TV, I came across this story. The Indian Government has ordered all ISP's to block certain inflammatory blogs. But it so happens that ISP's have blocked the whole Blogger site. Their reason -

...ISPs say that they are not at fault for though a lot of the blocked sites are not on the list issued to them, there is a technical glitch as it's not possible to block certain pages, without blocking the entire site.


http://www.ibnlive.com/news/censored-govt-signs-out-bloggers/15886-3.html

Looks like India is trying to compete with China even in blocking websites. :rolleyes:

Thankfully, there are a few others (http://www.cosmicvariance.com" , for instance) which I've been able to follow. (But for how long? :rolleyes: )
 
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They banned yahoo groups last time.
 
When was that?
 
You could try a proxy server.
 
MeJennifer said:
You could try a proxy server.
Yes, I think they did mention something along those lines on TV. *Goes off to google info*
 
neutrino said:
When was that?

It was in september 2003.
http://www.rediff.com/netguide/2003/sep/23yahoo.htm"
 
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siddharth said:
It was in september 2003.
http://www.rediff.com/netguide/2003/sep/23yahoo.htm"
Oh, ok. I don't think I was part of any group back then.
 
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Get a free open source blog software and get a host. That is what I did. I'm not saying my blog is inflammatory :rolleyes:
 
This is outrageous! I am suddenly reminded of a quote of the PC game Alpha Centauri

"Beware of he who seeks to widhold you information...for in his heart he dreams himself your master."
 
  • #10
Dimitri Terryn said:
Blogger seems te be running fine though. Altough the very thought of this happening is extremely scary...
This is just happening here. I am not able to access Geon Oh's blog,too.
 
  • #11
Yeah, I misread the article. I edited my response, but just too late it seems. I do hope that this will be rectified soon, because it seems that it was never the intention to block the whole domains.
 
  • #12
Here's another report this time from NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/world/asia/18cnd-india.html

Wordpress is still working by the way...(I just put up a preliminary page this morning: http://darkmav.wordpress.com ) and so is xanga. But for most blogger users who are used to template freedom among other things, it isn't as good...besides we have hundreds of entries there! :cry:

Hopefully they will revoke the ban soon...
 
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  • #15
Just noticed that the blogs are back!
 
  • #16
Haha yes, you beat me to it though :-p
 
  • #17
But they've been down (again!) for sometime now. Crazy ISPwalas.
 
  • #18
neutrino said:
But they've been down (again!) for sometime now. Crazy ISPwalas.

Oh they're working fine right now (at least from my place). So much for advertisement (lol): http://darkmav.blogspot.com/ and http://darkmav.wordpress.com (okay wordpress was never banned and I imported my blogger blog to this account for backup...who knows what they do next!)
 
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  • #19
Can't see your blogspot site, but it looks like you're into topology these days. ;)
 
  • #20
neutrino said:
Can't see your blogspot site, but it looks like you're into topology these days. ;)

I am not into anything mate, just killing time and reading anything that comes in front of my eyes. :smile: Thats what holidays are for, I guess.