On India’s Banning of Blogs

July 18th, 2006 by Loren Baker, Editor | 7 Comments

On India’s Banning of Blogs

Amit Agarwal, Indian blogger extraordinaire, has answered some of the questions on the recent banning of certain blog networks & blog hosts by the Indian government. The blog ban in India is speculated to be connected to the recent Mumbai Train attacks; ‘Probably the groups behind the bomb blasts used blogs to exchange information and co-ordinate the plan so the Government decided to ban these sites.’

So, which blogs have been banned in India? All of those which are hosted on blogspot.com, typepad.com, blogs.com, and geocities.com (those are officially personal home pages, but for the time being we’ll group Geocities pages with the other blog networks).

And which blogs are accessible in India? Generally any blogs which are hosted with a private host and housed on a private domain (like SearchEngineJournal.com vs. SearchEngineJournal.blogspot.com).

Amit adds :

For strange reasons, blogs hosted on Wordpress, Livejournal, MSN Spaces, Rediffblogs, IndiaTimes and Yahoo 360° are spared by the Indian censors and they are still accessible in India.

More information on the Blog Ban in India on Digital Inspiration.

Comments

7 responses so far ↓

Kaustubh on Jul 19, 2006 at 12:02 am

A ridiculous attempt by a panicked govt. to show some actions, while the terrorists still roam free.
vinay on Jul 19, 2006 at 2:12 am

when u cant do anything then u do something , bullshit this is the easiest way to fool citizens of india.
Barry Welford on Jul 19, 2006 at 4:51 am

Of course it’s to show that they’re not sleeping at the wheel, but how else can a government show that it’s doing something. In reality it’s better keeping the Internet open and monitoring all traffic. We all leave our footprints in the sand and at least you may learn to spot the suspect messages.
Amrita on Jul 19, 2006 at 7:35 am

Hi,
I totally disagree with the government decision to ban blogs. When our national constitution has granted me the freedom to talk and express, then why the government has taken such a step? Why we, the general public are being forced to keep mum?

If our government thinks that the blogs serves as a medium for communication between terrorists, then telephonic facilities should also be banned. Why should only blogs, also ban to chat services?

And, I also would like to appeal to all of our friends to come forward and speak without any hesitation. What are your opinions on this decision? Just let them come out here.

Click here to be a part of this burning issue participation.

http://www.merinews.com/newsPortal/JSP/catFull.jsp?articleID=123283&catID=2&category=Nation

Amrita Menon
Abhishek on Jul 19, 2006 at 11:59 am

It’s is no exaggeration to consider it as a murder of democracy.
snehil on Jul 19, 2006 at 10:22 pm

one more cowardly act by indian govt.
criminal use trains to travel ,govt. should also ban train travelling.
Parsi on Jul 20, 2006 at 3:25 pm

You can still access these blogs through Proxy IPs/browsers. Someone pleae ban these too.