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India Blocks Yahoo Groups Over Political Content

Posted by simoniker on from the brute-force-embargo dept.

Ryan Barrett writes "In an attempt to shut down the Yahoo Group of a separatist political movement, the Indian government's CERT organization ended up blocking its country from accessing Yahoo Groups as a whole. China's censorship of the Internet in the past few years has been unsettling, but most people have accepted it as a by-product of China's form of government. Given that India's form of government is clearly different, this is much more chilling."

14 of 441 comments (clear)

  1. Irony by (54)T-Dub · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This obscure seperatist group is no longer so obscure. I'm interested to see how this pans out in a democracy. Will the people be so mad that they can't use yahoo that they will demand change? Will this actually increase the interest in this seperatist group?

    --

    "I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance" - Isaac Asimov
    1. Re:Irony by Lawbeefaroni · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You know, the funny thing is how easy it would have been to end the group. Instead of blocking it, they could have just had a crew of about 10 or so people (outsourced to the US of course) sign up to the group under 100 or so names and just crap it out. Make it all noise and no signal and just kill it. With 24 legit users and 80 fake, government users, 20 government trolls it wouldn't last long. At the same time they would be monitoring it.

      What they did do was about the worst thing they could.

      --
      "When it rains, it pours." --Morton's Salt
  2. Freedom of speech by Tar-Palantir · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Given that India's form of government is clearly different, this is much more chilling."

    This is going to happen, sooner of later, in any nation which doesn't have some analogue of the First Amendment. Even in democracies like India, either the government will do it unilaterally or they will scare the people enough to push it through.

    A Constitution like ours (US), however flawed, is a wonderful thing.

  3. NNTP bittorrent news proxy? by t0qer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've been toying around with this idea for a while, basically all I have now is a hacked stupid ass script that decodes yenc encoded binaries from a paticular newsgroup, creates a .torrent hash on the message, then seeds the message with btdownloadheadless. (I did this so some friends on a different ISP that didn't carry the paticular group could reap it's rich rewards)

    Why can't the same principal with web boards be applied with bittorrent? Simply wget the page you want, create a .torrent hash, seed.

    (runs off to script)

  4. Loosing Y! groups? Hardly a loss by hajejan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I see the point about the freedom of speech and yadda-yadda. However, Yahoo groups (and - even worse - MSN groups) have never really been a healthy addition to the internet.

    I only wish the British government would do the same - perhaps people will make *real* groups and/or websites.

    h

    --
    The Mini Repository - more links
  5. Re:Odd That by jmccay · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I find it funny that India did it considering their blooming tech outsourcing industry. What's next blocking the internet? That'd be good...for American jobs. ;)

    --
    At the next eco-hypocrisy-meeting, count the private jets used to get to the meeting. Should be interesting to see that
  6. Re:Odd That by mrscorpio · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was under the impression that Pakistan was much more free, despite being a dictatorship.

    Being a democracy does not ensure a freer populace, that is for sure.

    Chris

  7. Times of India article by jdunlevy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Times of India has an article, "Big Brother turns gaze on debates," about this (dated Saturday). From the article:

    "The government has given itself sweeping powers to police Internet content and demonstrated it is willing to use them," said Somasekhar Sundaresan, a lawyer specialising in technology issues. "What makes it worse is that rather than acting with transparency and explaining why it was necessary, ISPs were ordered to block 'Kynhun' without being given facts or reasons. All of which creates fear of a police raj."

    What has most alarmed freedom-of-speechniks is that this is not a random instance. Increasingly, Big Brother is turning his gaze from pornography to political debates and ideological differences.
  8. Al Jazeera wasn't taken down by the government by MyNameIsFred · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Al Jazeera was a victim of a DDoS attack perpetuated by overzealous supporters of the war. The DDoS was illegal, and the perpertrators should be penalized.

    So many people who scream first amendment forgot this crucial point -- the first amendment limits what the government can do. A DDoS attack against Al Jazeera by the GOVERNMENT is a first amendment violation. A DDoS attack by INDIVIDUALS is not - although it is illegal.

  9. More excuses by swb · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Gee, border integrity, cultural cohesion, other nations wrong-minded censorship, what's next, torture is OK, too, as long as someone else is doing it to?

  10. Re:Odd That by exhilaration · · Score: 3, Interesting
    You're kinda right, but it's more a matter of resources. You can criticize the government as much as you want in Pakistan, but they don't really have the resources to go after you (unless you're in any way connected to Bin Laden - that's a different case).

    In India, with their thriving economy and huge cash reserves, it's a different deal. Some journalist got one of the defense ministers on video while taking a bribe - they shut him down, put some of his colleagues in prison, and used any means they could to harrass him.

  11. A democracy dominated by hindu neofascists... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    ... specifically the BJP, the political arm of the Hindu supremecist Hindutva movement. These ARE the same folks that shot Gandhi for advocating peace between Indian muslims and hindus you know.

    In perhaps a more direct parallel, economic development in India was stifled by grossly excessive bureaucratic controls on private business, which despite some reform is still true today. Government approval was required to do practically anything.

  12. A Simple question to my Wise American Friends by teetam · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Consider the following scenario:
    1. Some country, say Elbonia, legalizes something that is illegal in USA. Say, child pron. I know it is a stretch but bear with me.
    2. Should American ISPs block this site or not? If not, given that the Web is a big, linked document, an American citizen might land there and thereby, commit a crime!!!

    What is the correct, free response to such a scenario?

    --
    All your favorite sites in one place!
  13. Re:al jazeera by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    mod up the parent--unless the sentiment makes you uncomfortable?

    al jazeera was formerly the BBC's Asian Office. They are independent journalists (the local gov'ts there have also attacked them for reporting the truth they don't want to hear), not some sort of sinister mouthpiece for islamic fundamentalism