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20. Jul 2006

Indiens absurde blog-censur

 
For nogle få dage siden begyndte en række indiske Internetbrugere at bemærke, at de ikke længere kunne få adgang til en række af de mest populære blog-sites - herunder blogspot.com, typepad.com og Geocities.

Det synes at bero på en misforståelse, eftersom regeringen havde stillet med en liste på 18 specifikke hjemmesider og blogs, man gerne ville have blokeret.

I stedet har landets Internetudbydere - på grund af kommunikationsbrist eller almindelig mangel på kompetence? - som sagt lukket af for adgangen til tusinder og atter tusinder af blogs på blogspot.com og typepad.com.

Hvis man så ser nærmere på, hvilke hjemmesider det helt konkret er, regeringen har bedt om at få lukket af hensyn til den nationale sikkerhed, bliver det hele endnu mere mystisk:
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 [Department of Telecommunications] has not explained why these sites need to be restricted from viewing by Indians.
Som man også læser i dagens Guardian har dette skridt vakt en del vrede blandt Indiens op mod 40.000 bloggere, og blokaden vil da også blive hævet snart, som det fremgår af den ovenfor citerede artikel fra rediff.com.

Rediffs journalist tager selv bladet fra munden på sin egen blog:
How many sites did the govt want blocked?
18.

Was the govt right in this request?
N.O.

How many sites did ISPs block?
Hundreds of thousands.

Who’s to blame for our inconvenience?
ISPs.

Who’s to blame for censorship?
DoT, CERT-IN, the IT Act - the powers that be.
Han har i det hele taget en del indlæg om sagen, ligesom også Boing Boing følger historien.

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