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Indian ISPs Appear To Be Blocking Access To Internet Archive (bit.ly)

Posted by msmash on from the censorship dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Several Internet service providers in India have blocked access to Internet Archive -- a non-profit organisation that runs Wayback Machine, a massive archive of webpages dating back to over a decade -- Indian outlet NDTV reported Tuesday. Some subscribers of Airtel, Aircel, and Act Internet, among other carriers, are seeing a DoT notification when they attempt to access Internet Archive. The notification reads, 'Your requested URL has been blocked as per the directions received from Department of Telecommunications, Government of India.' Popularly known as time-warping tool, Internet Archive's Way Back Machine has made copies of over three billion pages over the years. In the age of ephemeral media, Way Back Machine has become a cultural phenomenon, serving as a permanent registrar of popular websites and other webpages.

6 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. Implementing "right" to forget by arnott · · Score: 5, Informative

    Looks like, its because of some deleted articles about politicians in power are accessible through the internet archive. May be related to this issue: As BJP Explains Amit Shah’s Asset Increase, Questions on Deleted News Reports Remain.

    1. Re:Implementing "right" to forget by arnott · · Score: 5, Informative

      More details in this article: Stories on Amit Shah’s Assets, Smriti Irani’s ‘Degree’ Vanish From TOI, DNA.

  2. Re: History is fake by N!k0N · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In other news, we have always been at war with Eastasia and allied with Eurasia.

  3. Bit.ly by SB5407 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can slashdot please not use bit.ly? URL redirectors are a security threat because when you use one, the destination is unknown and could be malicious.

    1. Re:Bit.ly by arnott · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here is the proper link : http://gadgets.ndtv.com/intern.... Reason for the block : https://thewire.in/162841/amit.... (deleted pages are accessible through the archive).

  4. Alarmism by jma05 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All of these blocks in India are rapidly reversed. Most of these come from either some incompetent bureaucrat broadly reading some vaguely written laws (as is the case in any developing country) or responding to some silly complaint of some vested party, without knowing anything about what the Way Back Machine is. People in India complain, they tweet about it, media writes about it and the rules are often rapidly reversed (with quiet embarrassment, yet no one seems to learn anything from it).

    There is no censorship similar to China in India. These are banal events, not harbingers of a totalitarian state. I am not excluding the possibility of occasional mischief, but India has a strong enough independent judiciary that would not let any group or party to dominate and skew the information space.

    "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity".
        - Murphy's Law Book Two