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Blogs, websites go blank

Posted: 2006-07-18 00:08:37+05:30 IST
Updated: Jul 18, 2006 at 0008 hrs IST

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Mumbai, July 17: Millions of domestic internet users could not access some of the world’s most popular blogs like geocities.com, blogspot.com and typepad.com, as the government ordered a blackout of around 18 sites for publishing content that was ‘anti-national’ and ‘against public interest’.

Blogging, particularly on fanatic and religious websites, had surged soon after the Mumbai bomb blasts on July 11. Over 25% of India’s 38 million internet users are active bloggers. Currently, there are over 120 million bloggers worldwide and multiplying at the rate of about 10 million per month. The number is expected to cross 160 million in 2006.

ISPs are believed to have been asked to block sites like bloodspot.com, hinduhumanrights.org, hinduuni-ty.org and clickatell.com, besides frontline blogs like the Google-owned blogsp-ot.com. Deepak Maheshwari, secretary of ISP Association of India said: “We have received a letter from DoT, asking us to block around 18 URLs.”

Though the communication, dated July 13, by the telcom department to ISPs lists specific pages/ websites, several ISPs have blocked all blogs because they were not equipped to filter specific pages. This could be because all websites hosted on blogspot.com, for instance, have the same IP address.

Blackout in Cyber space

• hinduunity.org
• hinduhumanrights.org
• princesskimberley.com
• bloodspot.com
• dalitstan.org
• clickatell.com
• blogspot.com
• geocities.com
• typepad.com

Reliance was among the first to restrict access to these sites on Friday. By Monday, other ISPs including Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (which have the largest number of internet subscribers) also followed suit. Interestingly, Sify, also among the top ISPs, said it had not received any formal intimation from the DoT to block any website or blogs.

The move invited a strong reaction from the online community with a number of posts springing up all over the Internet. As per law, pornographic websites and websites containing inflammatory material promoting hate, violence or and terrorism, can be blocked.

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