India Blocks Several Web Sites, Many of Which Are Blog Homes By ERIC BELLMAN in Mumbai and PETER WONACOTT in New Delhi Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 19, 2006; Page A8 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115324795254910050.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news India's Internet regulators have started blocking several Web sites in a move that borrows a page from China, where government censors heavily restrict the flow of online information. India's Department of Telecommunications sent an order late last week to Internet-service providers to block several Web sites, according to a department spokesman. The spokesman, Rajesh Malhotra, declined to disclose the contents of the letter or discuss the order, saying it was a "confidential exchange of information between the department and the operators." Several telecom operators confirmed there were more than 15 sites they were directed to block. Close to a third of the sites were home to blogs, the personalized Web logs that have become popular in India, just as they have in other parts of the world. Among the Web sites blocked are parts of Blogger and GeoCities. Included on a list seen by The Wall Street Journal are sites that showcase views of an Islamic holy man, conservative Hindus, and Dalits, the low caste in India pejoratively referred to as untouchables. The Internet-service providers declined to explain how the sites were blocked or whether all Internet users in India would be affected. The government blacklist follows last Tuesday's commuter-train bombings in Mumbai, which killed an estimated 207 people. It isn't clear if the move was related to the blasts, which Indian government officials said they suspect came from Islamic militants based inside neighboring Pakistan. India, the world's largest democracy, has generally eschewed efforts to block citizens from obtaining information or from expressing their views. But following the Mumbai bombings, the government has come under renewed pressure to toughen its policing of potential security threats and improve intelligence gathering. Bloggers said the government order represented an inconvenience more than a firm blockade, as they could find other ways to access the banned sites. Yet some said they are confused as to why their sites have been singled out. Rajneesh Rallan, a Mumbai-based lubricants manufacturer, says he can't access his personal site on blogger.com, and his friends and family with blogs on the same site are also being blocked from his site. His site extols the benefits of synthetic lubricants and introduces his favorite European movies and directors. "There is nothing dangerous on my site," says Mr. Rallan, adding that his mother's personal site on blogger.com can't be accessed, either. A spokeswoman for Google Inc., which owns Blogger, said, "We are currently looking into the situation to determine whether, and why, this has taken place." A spokeswoman for Yahoo Inc., which owns GeoCities, also said the company was looking into the matter. India's restrictions echo those made by other governments that have viewed the freedom of online information as a possible threat to their security. In China, for instance, authorities have been trying to tame the Internet almost since its arrival. The techniques used to police and censor content have become increasingly sophisticated, as have efforts by Chinese Internet users to circumvent government controls. One common method is to direct Chinese mainland Internet users to overseas proxy servers, so they can avoid government firewalls to access prohibited content from home. The cat-and-mouse contest has pulled in some U.S. Internet companies, which have been criticized for cooperating with the Chinese government. Google launched a Chinese-language search engine that omits links Beijing doesn't like. Yahoo created an uproar by providing information on a Chinese account holder who was later jailed. And Microsoft Corp. shut down a Chinese-language blog that had criticized the Chinese government's media controls. ----------------------[BOXED FEATURE]------------------------ BLOCKED A partial list of Web sites blocked by the Indian government hinduhumanrights.org HinduUnity.org mypetjava.mu.nu bloodroyal.tripod.com thepiratescove.us clickatel.com rahulyadav.com select blogs from blogger.com and blogspot.com Source: WSJ research ================================================= George Antunes Voice (713) 743-3923 Associate Professor Fax (713) 743-3927 Political Science Internet: antunes at uh dot edu University of Houston Houston, TX 77204-3011 Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
