Indian Government Threatens To Fine ISPs That Blocked Blogs... On Their Order

from the confusion-abounds dept

Thu, Jul 20th 2006 6:41pm — Mike Masnick

One of the big stories this week that we haven't written anything about is the "blog blockade" in India. One of the reasons we haven't touched it is because there was so little information about what was actually going on. The story eventually settled on the fact that the government had asked ISPs to block certain sites as a "precautionary measure" in dealing with terrorist attacks. However, there was some confusion over whether or not the order was just to block a few blogs or the entire sites (which is what happened). However, there's now a twist. As the story has gained more prominence and more outrage, the Indian government has responded oddly. Not only are they claiming they didn't order the full blockade (just of a few subdomains), they're now asking the ISPs to explain why the government should not take action against the ISPs for blocking the full sites. In other words, they made an order that the ISPs clearly did not understand -- and now they're going to blame and punish the ISPs for misunderstanding their orders. That would be a lot more credible if so many ISPs hadn't banned the full sites. With so many ISPs all interpreting the ban the same way, it certainly seems odd for the government to suddenly be angry about it. It sounds like they're just trying to make an excuse now that they realize how angry everyone is.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

18 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Erstazi, 20 Jul 2006 @ 6:51pm

Sounds like the Army
Very similar to the U.S. Army. I have been there and witnessed it myself. At least the Indian government did it with style... j/k.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
sm, 20 Jul 2006 @ 7:18pm

ISPs are responsible too
I agree that threatening to sue ISPs for blocking entire blog sites is odd, but that does not absolve the ISPs of their responsibility. If the order wasn't clear they should have asked the government it. My opinion: the ISPs likely blocked entire sites to be on the safe side.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Shawn, 20 Jul 2006 @ 7:18pm

Obvously an excuse.
And since, like most nations, people can't do anything to keep the goverment from making the mistake again and covering their hides, the government is going to get away without a slap on the wrist for this one.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Danno, 20 Jul 2006 @ 7:55pm

I want to make a joke about first level support, but I'm on hold while this Indian guy looks through the comedy knowledge database.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ajju, 20 Jul 2006 @ 8:57pm

Err
The order asked the ISPs to ban specific blogs on blogspot and typepad not entire domains. Not that it justifies the censorship but in my view the fine is justified.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Richard, 20 Jul 2006 @ 8:57pm

Kafkaist !
LOL! Someone tries to cover his error and makes another mistake even more stupid. A smarter move would have been to simply blame bad communication or poor wording. Instead they chose to prove how incompetent they are.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Clair Ching, 20 Jul 2006 @ 9:07pm

This is just too bizaare. I guess it's difficult to do something about the matter in the first place hence the confusing actions of the Indian government. I do hope they sort everything out first. That is what should be done right now. They can't seem to figure out what to do if they don't sort out these things.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Andrew, 20 Jul 2006 @ 9:29pm

what sites have they blocked?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Innocent User, 20 Jul 2006 @ 9:33pm

Blocked Until Proven Guilty
Why is this so hard for everyone to understand? The only reason that [comment blocked by Indian government] was because [comment blocked by Indian government]. It can't get any simpler than that.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
dorpus, 20 Jul 2006 @ 9:35pm

How would any country respond?
If terrorists bomb public places every week, how would the government of any country respond to pro-terrorist web sites? In India, train massacres and bombings are a weekly event.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
alok, 20 Jul 2006 @ 11:27pm

news and views
and from where exactly did u get this information that indian government has issued any such notices?

as far as blocking the sites goes, i think one must understand that some decisions might seem odd in retrospection, but when you are counting bodies, it is better to be on the safer side. india was, and still is one of the countries where people enjoy much freedom to voice their opinions.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Brandon Rusnak, 21 Jul 2006 @ 9:22am

I'd like to see the official order
I'd like to see the official order the ISPs got. IF the gov't said to block http://www.blogger.com that will be interesting.

The proof is in the paperwork.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
MikeT, 21 Jul 2006 @ 10:03am

Sort of makes sense
One would think that the ISPs would have legal counsel contact them ask them what it means if there was such ambiguity. Hopefully, if the Indian federal government ordered something that really would sound like a blanket ban, it'll get knocked for a loop in India's legal system. However, this sounds more like a CYA on the part of the ISPs right now.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2006 @ 10:42am

What could have happened
Phase 1: Gov't orders ISPs to setup IP based banning of sites.

Phase 2: much time goes by

Phase 3: Gov't orders ban of sub.domain.tld, ISP looks up IP addy of sub.domain.tld and blocks the IP addy 1.2.3.4.

Phase 4: Gov't gets upset cause 1.2.3.4 ALSO hosts PoliticalActivistsBlog.domain.tld

Phase 5: Political Activist finds out the Gov't jsut silinced his site, along with every other activist he knows. They have a fight, triangle wins. Phone calls are made.

Phase 6: You read this useful column and its useless post on TechDirt

None of this is uncommon and it seems to happen all the time, so don't anyone dare try and tell me its "unlikely".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
fromIndia, 21 Jul 2006 @ 1:10pm

This is what happend
List of the sites that Indian government asked ISPs to block:

http://www.hinduonnet.com/nic/banned.pdf

Overzealous ISPs did block more than what was required. If you see the list, instead of blocking the sub-domains, they blocked entire domains. May be they were under the pressure and could not quite figure out how to block just the sub-domains or may be they thought what the heck, let's block all - people will be safer that way :-)

I am an Indian and I have never seen such an outcry from the Indian people about blocking the websites. Few years back, VSNL (Indian Internet gateway) blocked all the voice traffic as they controlled the phones (evil telco) in India.

Nothing is going to happen - trust me. The government asking ISPs why they should not be punished is similar to a "show cause notice". It is a legal terminology in India used to ask for clarification before filing any charges. The ISPs will apologize and that's it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2006 @ 2:57pm

Re: This is what happend
thanks for the hard data. if i was an ISP i would have blocked the whole domains and feigned an accident, as part of an effort to piss everyone off about it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Intelli, 23 Jul 2006 @ 11:11am

Re: How would any country respond?
Where did you get this news?

It would be better to refer to "some parts of India" rather than just say "India".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anand Kumar, 3 Jan 2007 @ 3:17am

temple
Official Website of Shri Srinivasa Ragavaswamy charitable Trust in South India working towards constructing a temple for Sri Srinivasa Perumal (balaji) with Raja Gopuram which is named as Kovai Thiruppathy.
[ link to this | view in thread ]