This is just in via digg and other sources – apparently the Indian government has issued orders to ISPs to block blogging sites including blogspot.
One of the reasons cited for this is that blogs are apparently being used by terrorists to communicate and spread information. I think this is not only draconian, but quite ineffective: you can’t block out the whole net, terrorists can easily set up blogs outside of the standard services, and there are workarounds to the ban that have already been posted. Worse, if the identity of the alleged misinformation blogs were to be revealed, this move would only increase traffic to that site. It appears that the government only requested for a few particular blogs to be banned; however some private ISPs have reacted over enthusiastically and shut down entire blogspot or geocities domains.
Links: Amit Varma, Blog Censorship wiki, Censorship Google group.
If you are accessing from India, I’d appreciate if you leave a comment and let us know if your access is being blocked.
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