Two days ago, good Mridula sent me an email saying her ISP, and some others had blocked blogspot sites. I personally had no problem with the shady ISP I was using.
In 2003 India enacted an Information Technology Law, which is currently in the process of an amendment, under which it created an authority called the Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-IN, which maintains a decent, regularly updated website.
Apart from internet security, CERT-IN’s mandate includes maintaing a ‘balanced flow of information’, which is by far the most verbose description of censorship that I have come across.
One of the first things the CERT-IN did after taking birth was to discover that a banned militant outfit in Meghalaya, the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) of the Khasi tribe, was publicly, openly using Yahoo! Groups (which, even now, is the best mailing list solution). The mailing list in question was called kynhun, and its popularity and visibility went up by leaps and bounds instantaneously, despite it being blocked by all ISPs! Clearly, you can’t ban anything on the internet.I’m having this deja vu feeling because it seems the very same thing has happened with blogspot.
*
This morning, 10 AM, I called up CERT-IN and one Mr Madhur (forgot his surname) said that CERT-IN had *not* ordered blogspot or any particular blog to be blocked. They said that by lunch time (1:30 IST) they will be in a position to tell me whether and which government agency has ask for the block, and why.
*
Then I called up a senior MTNL engineer who’s in-charge of these things, Mr. R.H.Sharma. Mr Sharma was polite and helpful and said that he had a long 22-page of list of sites, sent to him by the National Informatics Centre, and he would needs two hours to go through it and find out if it contains any Blogspot or Typepad site! But he said that as far as he knew MTNL had not blocked blogspot per se.
*
I called up a senior Spectranet official who confirmed that the Department of Telecommunications (not the Ministry of IT) had on Friday sent a list of sites to be blocked. This is the same list, it seems, that MTNL’s Sharma was telling me about. This list is not public. It deserves to be.
I took a lot of insistent calling and being asked to call other numbers to get through to the CERT-IN director. My credibility as a caller was hurt because I was not representing any organisation.
Secy: “You are?”
Me: “Shivam Vij”
Secy: “From?”
Me: “I’m a blogger.”
Secy: “Okay, Just a second please”
[pause]
Secy: “He’s busy, Please call back in 30 mins.”
*
I called up Mr Anil Saxena, a senior Spectranet official who’s the in-charge there of blocking-shlocking and such things, who confirmed that the list of sites to be blocked, sent recently to ISPs, does contain particular blogs hosted on blogspot. However, he said blogspot as a whole is not blocked. He says that he had a Spectranet connection before him even as he was speaking to him. I asked him to check mumbaihelp.blogspot.com – he said it was accessible. He says Spectranet customers should access mumbaihelp.blogspot.com and if it is inaccessible, inform the Spectranet call centre that mumbaihelp.blogspot.com is not accessible. Saxena also told me that the list of sites to be blocked is “highly confidential” and not to be made public.
However, Mridula is still unable to access any blogspot blog on her Spectranet connection. She writes in, “The call centre guy this time said that not entire blogger but certain domains on blogspot has been blocked by orders of DOT. When asked which sites on blogspot are opening or which sites are blocked, the guy said, I can share only
limited information with you.”
*
“Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has been designated as the single authority for issuing of instructions in the context of blocking of web sites. CERT-In has to instruct the Department of Telecommunications to block the web sites after verifying the authenticity of the complaint and satisfying that action of blocking of website is absolutely essential. There is no explicit provision in the IT Act, 2000 for blocking of websites. In fact, blocking is considered to be censorship; hence it can be challenged if it restricts the freedom of speech and expression. But websites promoting hate, contempt, slander or defamation of others, promoting gambling, promoting racism, violence and terrorism, pornography and violent sex can reasonably be blocked since all such websites cannot claim the Fundamental Right of free speech and expression. The blocking of such website may be equated to “balanced flow of information” and not censorship. If the blocking of a website is arbitrary, unreasonable and unfair and is based on extraneous and irrelevant materials and reasons, then it would be vulnerable to the attack of unconstitutionality, being in violation of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.”
*
Finally I managed to get through to Dr Gulshan Rai. He was downright rude. He said he
couldn’t understand what my problem was, and in any case he could not solve it on phone.
Me: “So should I send you an email?” (Which, btw, I already did last night, to CERT-IN.)
Gulshan Rai: “Do whatever.”So that’s that for now.
The phone numbers I called, I got them mostly from here and here.
Time for an RTI application, I guess.
*
Is there a moral of the story? Yes, there is. Shift to your own domain and your own hosting and most of all, to WordPress. If you want help with that, write to me.
*
Update: Rediff carries my story on the un-CERT-in blog blockade. Also on IndiaAbroad.
Update 2: See my follow-up stories on Rediff.
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Hmm..
Interestingly, I am not facing such problems. I am able to access all blogspot sites in spite of using Airtel Broadband, which I am told is one of the ISPs that is blocking access to blogspot sites.
And yes, I think it is time to invoke the RTI..
But I am not really surprised that the Indian government is trying to censor the internet. After all, it ranks really low in the world press freedom index.
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Unfortunately we all don’t have the funds to use our own domains and hosting :P
I do though, I just haven’t implemented it yet.
Shivam, shouldn’t the moral be to stand up and fight for your rights? People have legitimate reasons for using a hosted service, ranging from the existing community who can hold discussions with you via the comments section, to simply not having the time/resources to maintain something independently.
AirTel has joined in. I use AirTel Broadband in Delhi and I can confirm blogspot blogs are not accessible. I can login blogger.com, go to the dashboard, write and publish but I cant see the post. I cant see acces any other blogspot blog.
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@nonedone: you do not need to buy hosting. buy a domain name and make it point to your blogspot address/ip.
why censor? in the name of democracy; freedom of speech and expression; fundamental right thats why…
Yes my blogspot site is also inaccessible from MTNL (Though it was not updated since a month or so, and hence nothing to do with mumbai blast…..TRUST ME) Call centre MTNL guy said “no blocking”
Is everything alright in this great democarcy?
vijender
Damn them, we are not living in some islamic country run by an extremist!! I’m on Hathway connection in delhi & Blogspot.com is blocked, though blogger is opening!!
Shivam,
Suggesting WP is fine and all, but the very scenario is not a champion for the case to do that. What if tomorrow all wordpress.com sites are blocked and what if shivamvij .com is made to be present in the “To be blocked sites” list that will be given to ISPs ? :) Changing the host can not be solution to this problem, no ?
This is highly intolerable. Though moving to one’s own domain isn’t really a solution. If a babu so decides, the domain may land up in the 22-page document.
And about classified lists… Arrrrgghhh!
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It is so unfortunate to block all the Blogspot blogs.
However , i presume the cross border terror could have made the Indian authorities to filter certain contents..It may be temporary…
Those with Blogsopts blogs like me …. http://benzeneinternational.blogspot.com
need not worry so much
My 2cents worth comment..
Iqara joins the list of IPSs doing the blocking. Can’t get through to any blogspot blogs now.
What do you mean by ‘blocked’? Does it shows ’404 – Page cannot be displayed’ or some other message like the site is being banned/blocked is displayed when you type the URL?
I don’t believe that GoI will do something like this.
Well the blogspot was very slow in the morning and now it is completely inaccessible. I have airtel broadband. And the call centre guy, first said that it was redirecting him to blogger.com and when I insisted I didn’t get redirected they have registered the problem and promised to resolve it by tomorrow. No mention of any blocking whatsoever even after asking several times.
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1. Buying your own domain name and pointing it to blogspot will not help you coz, blocking is by IP address and not domain name. The IP address does not change.
2. Moving to wordpress will also not be much helpful. What if govt blocks wordpress too?
3. I like the idea of RTI petition. I would love to help you guys. Get in touch with me @ honeyuee@yahoo.com
4. The govt may want to block a particular blog, but they dont have the right to block the entire blogspot. Lets challenge them in the court if needs be.
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I am facing the same poblem trying to access my blog. Now it has nothing that could be of potential harm. Censorship on net is unacceptable. I am using MTNL. It sucks.
Basically this is nothing but carelessness of the ISPs. The 22 page list might be having many blogspot and other sites so that they must have done is, blocked whole blogspot domain instead of spending time in blocking each site.
It is same case like Yahoo Groups one…just non-technical dumb ass people adding *.blogspot.com in the block list lol
Deep
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This is pathetic. The only sites that I would support blocking are those involved in clearly illegal activities like child pornography. To block sites for expressing dissenting political viewpoints is stupid. If a site espouses secession from India, is that feeling going to go away just because the morons in the bureaucracy/political establishment decide that they are going to make it difficult to access those sites?
In general, I am not a supporter of taking Indian problems to the West (Europe/America) but as with all third world countries – and sorry to say, we are no exception – the only thing our beloved bureaucratic/political masters fear is bad publicity in the big bad West. So, I would suggest mailing a report of this idiotic behaviour to as many media outlets in the West as possible and then wait for the bureaucratic shuffle — “We are supporters of freedom of expression” etc. etc. Amidst the rhetoric, it is more than likely that the block will be quietly removed.
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For those who are stuck behind ISP firewalls, I have written a small article on how to bypass these firewalls through proxies and email surfing. Please refer to http://www.pranavnegandhi.com/notadesigner/2006/07/big-brother-vs-nerds-round-1.html.
or simply access your blogspot blog like this: http://www.pkblogs.com/blogname
replace blogname with your blogspot blog name
How can I tell if my website, Incredible Fukn.us (www.fukn.us) is being blocked? Despite the name sounding vaguely dirty, it is a site dedicated to the odd things in life, strange barter, and small dictators. Can anyone tell me if it is blocked?
chris damitio
chairman of the fukn bored
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Everyone: thank you. Will reply each comment individually very soon.
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Bangalore BSNL seems to have been the last one to go down. I can still access TypePad as I type Blogspot went down a couple of hours back.
Confirmed – my cable operator (7Star) is also serving up an ‘Operation timed out while attempting to connect to ___.blogspot.com’ Was ok in office, though; will check again tomorrow.
This is very, very worrying, whichever way you look at it; either as a deliberate act or as a careless mistake. The Government of India either does not understand or care about something called fundamental rights; we don’t have the right to equality, we don’t have educational and cultural rights, we don’t have the right to equality, and now we don’t have the right to freedom of speech and expression.
Did the govt start unblocking the sites? I saw a hit from BSNL (WB) yesterday (US time), which should be Monday IST.
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pkblogs is overloaded I think. I can’t access the site. Meanwhile, I have implemented a tool that will show any Blogger post in text-only format. It works with most Blogger blogs.
Please check out.
http://www.anniyalogam.com/scripts/freedomviewer.php
Coming soon: If you are able to login to Blogger, you can also leave comments in others’ blogs using my tool.
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GREAT JOB SHIVAM!!!
Thanks for the mail too. Had no clue about this blockage before that…
As someone rightly pointed out switching to WP can’t be the solution to this madness… Something more concrete and more direct must be done to undo this colossal stupidity!
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The title really says it all!! Thats the level of knowledge of the indian govt!
Indian govt and majority of the market still dont get the concept of web 2.0 or community websites! This reminds me of the arrest of Avnish Bajaj because some guy sold some porno MMS on eBay/Bazee! knee jerk reaction of the poor ignorant politicians if you ask me! :-(
sad reality http://www.desihub.com/blogs/page/mihir/20060717#indian_market_government_not_yet
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i did all crappy things in the last three days .. .after i was not able to view my blogpage in blogspot !!!
ppl i guess we need to go to press .. NDTV or aaj tak…. if there is a popular revolution .. these guys will get bogged down !!!!
what more i saw a huge article on blogging in blogspot @ CNBC on sunday evening !!!!
i did all crappy things in the last three days .. .after i was not able to view my blogpage in blogspot !!!!!
I saw a half an hour article on blogging in CNBC .. sunday evening .. we should take it to the press … what say ppl ? AAJ TAK wud be fine !!
The Great Indian Government did it again. We elected those asses now they are paying up. Just answer me one thing, the Babus who know nothing they are dealing with. Do you own the internet? Do you have the right to censor it? Did your Dad own it? Did you buy it? Did you overtake it from anyone through Bruteforce. Let me answer this one for you. NO. The Government NEVER helped to popularise the Internet. The Internet is the real thing FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE and TO THE PEOPLE. Now from nowhere comes this banning. The ISP are helpless and they have to ban else they will also be in some jail like Avnish Bajaj. This is a cheap act. The government doesn’t understand that if someone needs to spead something they can over the internet. And one thing is for sure the terrorists are much smarter than the people in the Government. Banning some sites won’t help stopping them. People just don’t get influenced by blogs, we are not that dumb. Are we kids who will believe whatever we read. I am upset with this policing. Anyways, here is all I can do. Just open these sites and you will be able to access. These are webproxies enter the url and visit.
http://tproxy.guardster.com/proxy.php/
http://hidemyass.com
And please if anyone gives me the crap that I elected the Government; which is most times told on TV news channels; I would say Dude didn’t you realise that I ran out of Options.
This is only since 17th July afternoon, I use Airtel Chennai
This morning I was able to publish but unable to view it. I thought blogspot was under some kind of maintainance.
Strangely I was receiving comments for my current and previous posts. I was confused until a friend of mine informed me about the block. Called Airtel and confirmed it
unfortunately this happens to a super power of IT
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“Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master”
It is just height of stupidity. I have a post on this which discusses some more issues which the goverment has to concenterate rather than bringing in a blanket ban.
http://viewsreviews.wordpress.com/2006/07/18/india-information-blackout/
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Hi.
Sify also joined in that wagon of blocking the blogsites.I could’nt able to access any of the blogspot sites from sify cafe’s ( bangalore, ITPL main road )
I guess, the person who created that list must be a non-IT person. Instead of blocking individual sites,ordering to block all the sites is stupidy !
Come on yaar, its a democratic country !
thanks shivam for valuable post !! Keep blogging and sharing !!!
Mahes
Bangalore
Hi,
I did not know how I can get in touch with you. So I am leaving a msg here. I liked this story very much and request u to share it at merinews. Will like to know if you can do that. Plz mail me at consultingsudipta@gmail.com.
I will really wait for your mail ASAP.
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Some twenty sites are blocked in India and people started making nonsense by saying blah.. blah.. blah.., comparing India with China, with countries of Middle-East and even with North Korea too. This is as kike as most of the stupid ‘breaking-news’ come every hour on news channel containing no valuable content.
As working as the fifth pillar of Indian Democracy, we should be more cautious while reacting on the decision of the government. Comparing Indian democracy with autocratic countries is an extreme step. We should completely avoid these kinds of blogging. People are in a hurry to react and taking no time to literally abusing the step taken by the government, which yet not be released officially.
On the other hand, the government should take cautious steps to block some websites, and it should release the proofs or basis of blocking. In spite of giving directives to ISPs, they might ask Google to do that.
Anyway, I am requesting the respected bloggers to stop criticizing the government move so harshly and try to find out the major cause behind that. We should provide some suggestive measures in front of the government to have an eye before taking such kind of step.
somehow the govt came to know tht terrorists were using blogs to communicate and pass commands…and what does ourgovt do???
it decides to block http://www.blogspot.com and leaves out http://www.blogger.com
hehe…dont these idiots kno tht still blogs can be read and published…
Initially I thought it was some regular glitch, I seem to have woken up quite late!
I believe we should take the course of legal action.
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deep is right one can circumvent the ban. In my case this http://www.pkblogs.com/devkumarsblogs.blogspot.com worked but http://devkumarsblogs.blogspot.com doesn’t.
If a person opens an email account and writes a message and saves it in draft mode in the same account then it is virtually impossible to ‘intercept’ such a message. An accomplice in any corner of the globe can then enter the same account and read the message.
Can we curb terrorism by blocking sites which host blogs? I doubt it. One thing is for sure – We will certainly become the laughing stock of the cyber world.
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To Pratyush Ranjan: Dude get some brains. It’s not about comparing us to China or some totalaterian regime, it’s about one government’s decision to infringe upon the basic freedom of it’s citizens. And you know what, if you let them get away with one, there will be more. Freedom of press and freedom of speech are the two most important components of a democracy. Without absolute freedom of speech we cannot have a true democracy. Remember the surrender to absolute authority occurs in small steps, by giving up your civil liberties one by one. And before you realize you will wake up one morning in Nazi germany. There should not be any compromises on our basic freedom. Period.
Dear Fellow Indians
I am also a victim of this senseless BAN on Freedom of Expression.
I beleive this is sheer frustration of govt. in failure of tackling terrorism.
This is same type of situation like what earlier pm Indra Gandhi did by putting Emergency in entire state.But Manmohan Singh jee this is not 1970′s era ,this is Year 2006 where 75% of population is young and knows ways how to express themselves.
SMS ( read as Sardar Manmohan Singh) is just adding fuel to frustration of mumbai blasts and not trying to react to the situations and giveing a befitting reply to terrorists like Isreal did to lebanon.
Anyways regarding blogspot…you have numerous ways to reach your blogspot sites.
Let me send you the link
Get all info through
http://censorship.wikia.com/wiki/Bypassing_The_Ban
site and express yourself.
or read below
Jai Hind
Nitin
http://www.citychd.com
For Blogspot
* http://www.hidemyass.com
* http://www.shadowsurf.com
* http://pkblogs.com (Enter blog name. Or directly use a URL of the form http://www.pkblogs.com/blogyouwanttoread. http://www.pkblogs.com/mumbaihelp will let you see http://mumbaihelp.blogspot.com
* Anniyalogam Freedom viewer You can quickly view just the latest post of the blog with hyperlinks, formatting etc (no more text-only). Also shown is a link to the Blogger comment page to view and post comments, which is an advantage over Bloglines.
* bloglines and find an RSS Feed to the blog.
* http://techbytes.co.in/experimental/bypass.php?url=http://XYZ.blogspot.com:Works with non-blogspot domains as well.
* INBLOGS Just Like PKBLOGS
[edit]
Firefox Extension
* httProxy:
A firefox extension for proxyfing the sites. Also included pkblogs.com along with other options.
* Dilettante via pkblogs or Dilettante:
A Greasemonkey script to use Coral Cache to rewrite Blogspot URLs. It’s at the bottom of the post.
[edit]
For sites blocked by domain names
* Using google translate, e.g., if the blog is “blogyouwanttoread.blogspot.com”, then use
http://www.google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=blogyouwanttoread.blogspot.com
(May not work)
[edit]
For Tamil Blogs aggregated by thenkoodu.com
* Bloggers Blockage – A Quick Solution For tamil blogs aggregated by Thenkoodu
[edit]
For Malayalam Blogs aggregated by chintha.com
* Recent Malayalam blogs from Chintha.com.
Also see Malayalam-blogs at malayalam-blogs.blogspot.com/ for general information on fonts and other blogging sites in Malayalam.
For Mozilla Firefox Users Create a quick search
* Bookmark the above URL( Boomarks | Bookmark this page / Ctrl D )
* Goto Bookmarks | Manage Bookmarks
* Right Click on the saved bookmark, goto Properties
* In the URL field replace u=blogyouwantedtoread.blogspot.com to u=%s
* In the keyword field give a simple name like bypass or dumbgoi etc.
* Now goto the address bar ( Alt D ) and enter bypass blogname
* example ( shameless plug hehe): bypass makash.wordpress.com
* Hope This Helps you save some time and typing.
[edit]
Proxy server list
One way to visit a blocked site is through another site, generally called a proxy site or proxy server. Some proxies are listed below.
* http://www.boreproxy.com ((below the link for favourites you will find an edit box; enter URI there)
* http://www.shadowsurf.com
* http://www.hidemyass.com
* http://www.shysurfer.com
* http://www.daveproxy.co.uk
* http://www.ninjaproxy.com
* Anonymouse Proxy (cookies are not stored, so you cannot submit comment with saved Username & Password.)
* Unipeak
* Search in google for nph proxy.cgi, you’ll get lots of free proxies.
[edit]
Using TOR to bypass the block
* Onion Routing for the Paranoid
* Tor and FoxyProxy extension for Firefox – straightforward set up
o A one click solution. Use the Tor network.
o Go to http://torpark.nfshost.com/download.html,
o Download the torpark.exe (a self extracting archive which will extract the Torpark.exe executable) and run it.
o Torpark.exe is a secure version of firefox which will let you access any site via the tor network. Speed on my 1 Mbit connection is slow , but this should work for all. Since this is a version of firefox , any other firefox windows you open up while using this will be the copies of this exe and not the Firefow you have installed. Closing all Torpark Firefox windows is enough to start using your installed version of firefox again.
o There are no extensions and all scripts are blocked by default. You can use Opera or some other browser to Post blogs via Blogger ( since blogger is not blocked ).
[edit]
External Links
* Boing Boing’s guide to defeating Censorware Lost of links and good advice
* Amit on getting around the ban
* Google free proxy! Access restricted web sites using Google language tools service as a proxy. Essentially, you’re asking Google to translate an English page into English.
* Reporters Without Borders -Technical ways to get around censorship
* Workaround for censorship – Blogger way (via pkblogs)
[edit]
By Using Google Web Accelerator
Downloadand install Google Web accelreator and bypass the BAN. When using GWA, you actually access the blogspot pages from the Google Proxy server, where they are cached and not directly from the blogspot server.
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this is for Dipesh, I am completely agree with you dear with all your knowing about the constitution of India and others. Let me clear one thing, If Government did it for the sake of the national security. it is fine. you cannot question on the security measures. let me give an example to you. Its better to hit hard on the backbone of the threat element to the nation.
But the government should come forward with the basis and cause of such kind of acts. that would be positive move.
Do not worry about the guarantee of the fredom of the speech in India. this is 21st century dear. and this is India. the ban of media in India is history.
I am making you sure that if it clears that Government is doing this without any basis and only to curb the voice of the people, I will be probably the first person to stand with you. visit http://www.indiadaily.org/entry/government-feels-bloggers-heat-now/
This certainly sounds like internet censorship to me.
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To Pratyush. You talk of national security. Here we have ordinary people providing so many solutions to bypass all these restrictions. Those highly motivated terrorists would certainly come up with more ways to overcome these cosmetic blockades. So, it defeats the main purpose of the move.
Govt. and yourself are too naive to think that blocking the whole of blogspot will solve the problem.
what if this is 21st century?
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As an european having lived in india for half a year (Alas shorter than i wish it to be), i can only say that there is a definite need for more people like you out there.
I am always amazed at the amount of effort you, simple guys (I am thinking of other blogs on the subject of corruption in India), can put up with to get things known, and in a certain way to get them right.
I can’t even see that happening in my homecountry (france). Maybe this is due to a somewhat free press that takes all the attention away, but i havent even seen it tried, and i can’t stop feeling that this grassroot activism is the exercise of a proper and functionning democracy.
Congrats, and keep up!
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i want join this site
hello someone has blocked shysurfer can u unblock it
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As working as the fifth pillar of Indian Democracy, we should be more cautious while reacting on the decision of the government. Comparing Indian democracy with autocratic countries is an extreme step. We should completely avoid these kinds of blogging. People are in a hurry to react and taking no time to literally abusing the step taken by the government, which yet not be released officially.
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Without absolute freedom of speech we cannot have a true democracy. Remember the surrender to absolute authority occurs in small steps, by giving up your civil liberties one by one.
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Hi there could you please email me a huge list of proxys my email is brogdens@otocoll.schoolzone.net.nz i want heaps because my school has already blocked heaps…thanks
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Maybe this is due to a somewhat free press that takes all the attention away, but i havent even seen it tried, and i can’t stop feeling that this grassroot activism is the exercise of a proper and functionning democracy.
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It is a very sad story showing that no none can feel safe nowadays even in the cyberspace.
Some people feel, that while the last Congress rubber stamped all government tampering, and the newest Congress sleeps through it all, even the good old land of the free,
is not what it was.
A few short years ago, before the 9/11 excuse, I would not have feared leaving the first three or four words out
of the previous paragraph.
Anyone reading world news reports has heard the facts.
If they feel like reading your mail, or listening in on
phone calls, they now have the right, so I’m told.
Somehow, it doesn’t make me feel safer to know my
privacy is dwindling.
I guess the whole world is giving up some freedom, for
a little security, but I don’t have to like it! And though
I won’t be around much longer, I worry for my children,
and grandchildren!
Keep your eyes open guys, and while you’re at it, keep
your eye on that Mayan calender!!
W.H.
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Enna sir,
I don’t know about such problems to us Tams, but you must try quillpad.in/tamil
It’s a haven for Tamizh bloggers.
Please do have a look.
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It is INTERNET CENSORSHIP of this sort that must be Banned!
I cannot access the typepad blogs and blogsopt blogs. I don’t know why. Is anyone know how to access them?
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