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Is Slashdot Blocked In Parts Of India? (slashdot.org)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the jungle-block dept.

Long-time Slashdot reader davesag writes: I'm a regular long-term Slashdot reader and have been living in Delhi for the last 9 months. As of last Friday 25th August the only way I can access Slashdot at all is via a VPN. It appears that Slashdot has joined the growing list of websites the Indian Government finds threatening.

The Indian Government is deeply paranoid over internet access, with many sites being blocked, jail sentences for viewing blocked URLs, and bans on open wifi networks.
In 2015 the Indian government blocked access to over 800 adult web sites, and earlier this month they reportedly blocked access to Archive.org. "A block on Slashdot is over the top," davesag writes, "and makes me wonder what it is about this news site that the government here finds so terrifying."

13 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. jail wifi by TimMD909 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Asking about a site the government has blocked with a post on that site seems like a good way to find out if jail has better WiFi than the local coffee shop.

    1. Re:jail wifi by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not when the answer is obvious.

      What about this news site does the government find so terrifying?

      Goatse.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    2. Re:jail wifi by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Funny

      I am currently working in Shanghai, and Slashdot is not blocked here.
      So India is finally ahead of China on something.

    3. Re:jail wifi by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Being Slashdot is American and sometimes Western European centric in terms of members and stories. There is a lot of animosity towards India with people loosing their decent jobs to India because a bunch of companies decided to outsource everything.
      This was at full force in 2003 where it was the companies trend to fire all those quirky IT guys who get paid a lot of money, and shift the work to India for a fraction of the cost.

      It took a few years but the realization that IT outsourcing was over used and not as cheap as it seems. So it scaled back a bit. But still there are a lot of people who had a good job in Slashdots core demographic area who had lost it and never really was able to get that type of job again. So many of the articles and post are bias against India.

      So chances are some of India local officials may see something and decide to block it. But it may not be on the national blocking list.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  2. We'll describe it to you over the phone by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just outsource your browsing to Americans.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  3. Works fine here in Mumbai by kanwars · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am accessing slashdot through a major ISP/telco here in Mumbai, and there doesn't seem to be a block at all. Usually blocked sites return an error message that says that the site is barred due to orders etc. Did OP see a message or did the site just fail to load? Could be ISP incompetence.

  4. Modern dictatorship by XSportSeeker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The sirens are going at full force in several countries of the world.
    A whole lot of countries are tumbling into the cycle of dictatorship and tyranny after enjoying a good time of democracy.
    It's already happened in several middle eastern countries, it's happening in South America and some Asian countries, and it's spreading out.
    Enjoy while you can folks, and leave stories of hope behind. Because our grandkids might need it.

  5. Re:It's working fine here... by palemantle · · Score: 4, Informative

    Staying in southern India now and haven't had any problems getting to Slashdot. Have tried getting to the site using both Airtel and an ISP called Pioneer which leases bandwidth from all kinds of sources from what I understand.

    So either this bit about government censorship is FUD or the government is unbelievably incompetent at the same. I'm thinking the former.

  6. Works in Mumbai by frogcode · · Score: 2

    I'm in Mumbai right now and can access Slashdot just fine without the need of a VPN. For fun, I tried going to archive.org with no success. The India government should "do the needful" and unblock it unless they have some problem with nostalgia.

  7. this is what happens when you censor via streams by johnjones · · Score: 2

    As soon as you start censoring anything at the ISP level mistakes and policy will be made...

    this is not a option that can be disabled by users/citizens but by companies....

    why browser manufactures dont simply give the option of pulling a blacklist as a standard and pull from gov mandated site then the user/citizen can decide...

    welcome to the new world order where you dont decide if you can break the law only companies can do that...

     

  8. Easy access to Slashdot by gopla · · Score: 5, Informative

    I am from Mumbai, India. I have been on Slashdot since 1999, and never faced any blocking.

    The internet censorship in India is more about porn than political views.

    1. Re:Easy access to Slashdot by bain_online · · Score: 2

      The internet censorship in India is more about porn than political views.

      You mean about the stuff that Really Matters : )))

      --
      BAIN http://www.devslashzero.com
  9. Fake news by shivams · · Score: 2

    I just tried 2 ISPs to check this: BSNL (government ISP) and Reliance Jio (private). Slashdot is working smooth on both. Other users also report the same. As of last Friday 25th August, perhaps your Internet usage quota has got exhausted. Get it recharged. And quit spreading fake news.