Update at 6-30 pm IST, Feb 12, 2011
The blogspot can be accessed by me now and I hope it is possible for others also who could not access it for more than a day. A similar problem happened in July 2006 when specific sites including blogspots could not be accessed through certain ISPs. It was later conceded that the blockage was a sequel to a Govt order.
http://blogs.gonomad.com/traveltalesfromindia/2006/07/what-is-up-with-blogspot-blogger-sites-in-india.html
In the current happenings, there is no word as such, but it is learnt from technical experts and blogger help experts that this kind of India specific blockage can not be attributed to a technical glitch. Though the problem is solved now, this raises a question on what ways the Government can interfere in technology- dependent matters. For instance how can we trust that the EVMs can not be tampered with? With many states going to polls shortly and the Govt in a dire straits of facing many corruption and credibility charges, how can we say that they would not manipulate the EVMs in the upcoming elections to make their position safe? They can do it selectively in such a way that no one could conclusively pin point a mistake on their part as in the present crisis we experienced. I hope no such thing happens and people's will prevails.
The way the Congress is scrambling for seats in Tamilnadu and a party worker attempting to self-immolate for non inclusion of EVKS Elangovan in the selection team shows how confident they are that the scams would not have any impact on their prospects in the elections. What could give them such a confidence that they are a winning team???
- jayasree
After a day of anguish in not being able to access my blogspot, I am bringing this to the notice of readers that the current outage smacks of a deliberate attempt to scuttle the freedom of speech through blogspots. We are able to access our blogger dash board, read the comments and post them, but not able to access our blog spot. It is known from different sources that those using the ISPs such as Airtel, BSNL, Tikona, Tata, Idea etc are not able to view any blogspot.Those using other ISPs are able to access them.Only blogspot seems to have been denied access. That means this problem is India specific only.
Though I have lodged a complaint with my service provider, nothing has been done until now to correct it. This seems to be a deliberate attempt to deny Indians to voice their views at this critical juncture when more and more skeletons are tumbling out of 2G scam investigations. Such a thing happening in a democracy like India is an utter shame to all those in power. Even while totalitarian regimes are falling down near the Nile, a democratically established government resorting to such means needs to be checked. This governemnt must go. This government has no moral right to rule the country as it had only acted as a facilitator to all kinds of scams satrting from the one at ISRO. Above all, a government that is indulging in cyber terrorism is not at all a custodian of its citizens. The Emergency days are coming again, it seems.
An article on the crisis in blogspot can be read here posted in wordpress.
http://tljind.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/blogspot-domain-blocked-in-india-again/
Internet service providers (ISPs) in India have done it once again. They are systematically blocking the Blogspot Domain, upon which popular blogging happens on a daily basis. ISPs that have reported to blocked Blogspot include Airtel, BSNL, Tikona, Tata, Idea, etc.
As usual, measures to fight this website blocking exercise have already surfaced. The best way to view and access the blocked blogs is to use a proxy server to access the same. Since ISPs in India cannot block internet protocol addresses located out of India, this can restore access to the blocked blogs.
Till now there is no official response from Google in this regard. A dedicated help thread has been created at Google's help forum to circumvent this blocking exercise.
India has a draconian cyber law in the form of information technology act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000). It was deliberately amended by the information technology amendment act, 2008 (IT Act 2008) for the sole purpose of getting absolute and unaccountable e-surveillance, internet censorship and website blocking powers.
Although all these powers were granted to Indian government and its agencies yet till now the government of India in general and ministry of communication and information technology (MCIT) in particular have defaulted in providing such civil liberty protection safeguards.
Repeated requests to the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh in this regard also proved futile. Till now the prime minister's office (PMO) has not shown any willingness to reform this situation.
In these circumstances self defence seems to be the only choice for citizens of India.
The blogspot can be accessed by me now and I hope it is possible for others also who could not access it for more than a day. A similar problem happened in July 2006 when specific sites including blogspots could not be accessed through certain ISPs. It was later conceded that the blockage was a sequel to a Govt order.
http://blogs.gonomad.com/traveltalesfromindia/2006/07/what-is-up-with-blogspot-blogger-sites-in-india.html
In the current happenings, there is no word as such, but it is learnt from technical experts and blogger help experts that this kind of India specific blockage can not be attributed to a technical glitch. Though the problem is solved now, this raises a question on what ways the Government can interfere in technology- dependent matters. For instance how can we trust that the EVMs can not be tampered with? With many states going to polls shortly and the Govt in a dire straits of facing many corruption and credibility charges, how can we say that they would not manipulate the EVMs in the upcoming elections to make their position safe? They can do it selectively in such a way that no one could conclusively pin point a mistake on their part as in the present crisis we experienced. I hope no such thing happens and people's will prevails.
The way the Congress is scrambling for seats in Tamilnadu and a party worker attempting to self-immolate for non inclusion of EVKS Elangovan in the selection team shows how confident they are that the scams would not have any impact on their prospects in the elections. What could give them such a confidence that they are a winning team???
- jayasree
After a day of anguish in not being able to access my blogspot, I am bringing this to the notice of readers that the current outage smacks of a deliberate attempt to scuttle the freedom of speech through blogspots. We are able to access our blogger dash board, read the comments and post them, but not able to access our blog spot. It is known from different sources that those using the ISPs such as Airtel, BSNL, Tikona, Tata, Idea etc are not able to view any blogspot.Those using other ISPs are able to access them.Only blogspot seems to have been denied access. That means this problem is India specific only.
Though I have lodged a complaint with my service provider, nothing has been done until now to correct it. This seems to be a deliberate attempt to deny Indians to voice their views at this critical juncture when more and more skeletons are tumbling out of 2G scam investigations. Such a thing happening in a democracy like India is an utter shame to all those in power. Even while totalitarian regimes are falling down near the Nile, a democratically established government resorting to such means needs to be checked. This governemnt must go. This government has no moral right to rule the country as it had only acted as a facilitator to all kinds of scams satrting from the one at ISRO. Above all, a government that is indulging in cyber terrorism is not at all a custodian of its citizens. The Emergency days are coming again, it seems.
An article on the crisis in blogspot can be read here posted in wordpress.
http://tljind.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/blogspot-domain-blocked-in-india-again/
Blogspot Domain Blocked In India Again
Internet service providers (ISPs) in India have done it once again. They are systematically blocking the Blogspot Domain, upon which popular blogging happens on a daily basis. ISPs that have reported to blocked Blogspot include Airtel, BSNL, Tikona, Tata, Idea, etc.
As usual, measures to fight this website blocking exercise have already surfaced. The best way to view and access the blocked blogs is to use a proxy server to access the same. Since ISPs in India cannot block internet protocol addresses located out of India, this can restore access to the blocked blogs.
Till now there is no official response from Google in this regard. A dedicated help thread has been created at Google's help forum to circumvent this blocking exercise.
India has a draconian cyber law in the form of information technology act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000). It was deliberately amended by the information technology amendment act, 2008 (IT Act 2008) for the sole purpose of getting absolute and unaccountable e-surveillance, internet censorship and website blocking powers.
Although all these powers were granted to Indian government and its agencies yet till now the government of India in general and ministry of communication and information technology (MCIT) in particular have defaulted in providing such civil liberty protection safeguards.
Repeated requests to the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh in this regard also proved futile. Till now the prime minister's office (PMO) has not shown any willingness to reform this situation.
In these circumstances self defence seems to be the only choice for citizens of India.
Nice rollup. Keep on doing the good work.
ReplyDeletei have posted in my Face Book. Hope you wont mind.Any probs please let me know, will delete.
ReplyDeleteNo problem Mr Pradeep.
ReplyDeleteI hear from experts in this field that this is not a technical glitch. This is a deliberate attempt at blocking.
I can expect any action from cong. I have seen 1975
ReplyDeleteThe latest update on the blockage of blogspot can be read here:-
ReplyDeletehttp://cjnewsind.blogspot.com/2011/02/why-blogspot-was-blocked-in-india.html