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India Blocks Yahoo Groups Over Political Content
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."
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
This government is doing nothing more than trying to please people. Many people will be pleased, and many will be displeased. They have blocked Yahoo Groups, but there are plenty other sources of criticism, probably many much worse, that will remain uncensored until they go to the extreme of blocking everything by default and only allowing the sites of their choice.
This is not only ridiculous, it's not feasible. Good try.
We can totally remove india from the internet just mirror the groups everywhere...
Got Code?
Over the past two weeks, India's dozens of Internet service providers have been notified by the government to block access to a Yahoo discussion group called "Kynhun - Bri U Hynniewtrep." The group, which has about two dozen members...
I bet they get more after this amount of news attention.
"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.
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)
.torrent hash, seed.
Why can't the same principal with web boards be applied with bittorrent? Simply wget the page you want, create a
(runs off to script)
There's a wonderful quote (I'm not getting it word-for-word):
If we don't believe in free speech for people we despise, we do not believe in it at all.
It's very difficult to draw a line in the sand to divide what is and is not acceptible as free speech. And the most damage doesn't come from misplacing the line a little to the right or the left, but from placing the line to begin with.
India will now be forever locked in a debate over what can and cannot be accessible to the public.
On the upside, the more India is cut off from the internet, the better my job security.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
The Honchos sitting up there have no idea of the power of the Internet and the repercursions of blocking such a widely used site like yahoo groups. I did contact my friends in India. They said it was back online after a day or so.
Of course for a democratic nation like India free speech was taken for granted until today. The infamous declaration of Emergency by Indira Gandhi in 1975 plagues the Congress party even today. Funny, a lot of the leaders in the ruling party found themselves at the receiving end of the stick back then. Time really does make one forget I guess.
Anyway let us see how the "democratic process" pans itself out on this issue. The US found its own achilles heel in the Patriot Act. So moralizers beware.
--> Your Wisecrack Here
Does it really matter what name the government is called? Wether it be socialist, communist, republic or democracy? Any form of government can be corrupt. Maybe we shouldn't be trying to bring democracy to other countries. Maybe we should be more intersted in governments that server the people. Any one notice that about 100 years ago people stopped refering to the US as a republic and started calling the US a democracy?
Good grief,the country has over 840 million people and it is worried about a Yahoo group that has 12 members (now 188 thanks to this news story). While it is easy to say "remember 9/11", remember reality too.
It is unlikely they need Yahoo in order to successful anti-government activists. If they do, then they are not much of a threat. It would seem this is like killing flies with nuclear weapons.
Perhaps this should be a word to the wise, as American companies continue off-shoring development. What happens when the shut down incoming email? Your corporate site? Or your ISP? It appears they have no concern for the outcome of their action, merely that they follow it, as their duty demands. However, it is _their_ country and as it said, it is outside the control of US laws, and by direct connection US protections.
democracy is nice
but so is strong government
a lot of people here come from cultural monocultures of western democracies with strong central governments
we're talking about an organization with at most a few dozen members that want a sliver of land in the northeast of india to be independent, in a country that is as about as culturally varied as the entire african subcontinent
this is serious stuff in a place where india and china still have serious border issues about sikkhim, kashmir, etc., not to mention active separatist groups like in assam
this is not the border of canada and the us, across which most people here on slashdot are posting, perhaps the most historically peaceful border in the world
this is serious stuff, this is not funny, this is not a simplistic civics lesson in sixth grade that is understandable in simplistic terms only
india has to take serious steps to protect the integrity of its borders and internal cohesion
blocking all of yahoo groups was a MISTAKE in trying to block this one small group
everyone involved admits that
germany/ france actively censors nazi interests, and we think of them as open democracies
that's a group a lot larger than this tiny unknown group
nobody's screaming bloody murder over that here
so please, ket's have not have all the knee-jerk over-simplifying chicken littles cry the sky is falling in india
let's have some perspective
this really is no big deal, except for this minor practically unknown separatist group, which now has won more pr than they could have possibly dreamed of
which is perhaps the real lesson here about censorship, after all is said and done: you often just wind up buying pr for the group/ work you are trying to censor
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Just one more reason why maintaining freedom of speech in the U.S. requires constant vigilance.
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
The Times of India has an article, "Big Brother turns gaze on debates," about this (dated Saturday). From the article:
Java Anonymous Proxy was backdoored by the German government.
http://theregister.co.uk/content/55/32450.html
They posted an updated version which contained a backhole... they called it a 'crime tracking feature'... and then refused to indicate to users which site was being monitored and which wasn't.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
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.
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.
India has border disputes with just about every
neighbor. Indian political leaders are under a lot
of pressure to not settle any of these disputes.
Instead they have to fan these flames to win votes.
Maybe one day Indians will wake up and elect leaders
that will do something about feeding and educating
their masses rather than bickering with neighbouring
countries over land.
Communism is form of anarchy in which all workers contribute according to their abilities, and all receive according to their needs. In theory it is preceeded by a state known as "socialism" in which everything is owned by the working class (i.e., proletariat), but the working class is represented and governed by a dictatorship of the proletariat, which completely plans and organizes all economic activities. In the socialist phase, democratic rights are not respected, because they run counter to the central planning of the economy. Eventually, the dictatorship is supposed to "melt away" to form true Communism, but this has never happened in practice.
Pre-Communist socialism is not to be confused with democratic socialism, which has been practiced from time to time in various western countries. In this form of government, all major industries and resources are owned by the state. However, private businesses are allowed, and democratic rights are respected. Examples: pre-Thatcher Britain, pre-1990 Scandinavia
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
how come we didn't see so much outrage when US banned al jazeera in Iraq?
What is the correct, free response to such a scenario?
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Claiming India is a democracy is an insult to democrats everywhere. India is a kleptocracy, a govt HIGHLY corrupt and serves only the elites. If India is a democracy, Zimbabwe is too...
India is one of the least democratic countries in Asia. This is a country that would let millions starve to death while implementing policies helping the wealthy. This is a country that will lock up political dissidents, censor films, and ban anything threatening to the establishment.
The only reason anyone even considers India to be a "model" democracy is because of US propaganda during the Cold War. USA spent tens of millions--if not more--initiating propaganda campaigns in order to battle the Communists. Needless to say, the "brainwashed" population of the world actually believed it. Now that the Cold War is over, very few consider it to be a democracy. It wouldn't suprise me if the US govt considers the Chinese govt to be more "democratic" than India now.
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places