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South Asia Citizens Web [26 September 2003] INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN INDIA : -Blocking of Yahoo groups in India- An Update and call for resistance. The continuing blockage of groups.yahoo.com in India has by now affected thousand of web sites and users. The entire groups.yahoo.com domain has remained inaccessible to the vast majority of India based users for the last 5 days or so. [see: reports & URLs below] All this wont change till the silent majority of users dont speak up. And silence is complicity. A CALL TO RESIST This is a flagrant case of violation of freedom of expression. But the right wing govt. of the day whcih swears by democracy, can keep the ban going for some time; This is not the first time the Indian government has tried to block web sites, during the Kargil war of 1999, the web site of the prominent Pakistan daily was blocked; this was very vigorously fought by many in the media in India and some activists abroad. In 1998 a law suit was filed by online activist Arun Mehta to challenge other moves by the Indian state to block some websites. [see: URL's below] What we ought to and should do: - As suggested in a previous posting individuals or groups should actively consider filing a law suit or several law suits if possible. - Feel free to write letters to members of India's parliament protesting the ban - Write letters to editors to the Newspapers - The ISPs are to blame too since they are playing too rigidly by the rules, they should overturn the ban in public interest. They should be pressured to break the rules. - Call the ISP's and threaten to Refuse to pay the bills and write letter to them. In short make noise. - Contact human rights groups in India which have been unable to get their act together and pressure them to move. - Write to International Human rights groups to take this up. - All public spirited citizens in India with Internet access are invited to openly violate / or evade the ban daily by using proxy servers that allow you to bypass the servers of your ISPs. Here is how to beat the ban: 1.: http://anon.free.anonymizer.com/http://groups.yahoo.com 2.: http://www.citizenlab.org/cgi-bin/nph-groups.cgi/001010A/http/groups.yahoo.com/ * at the request of SACW this second proxy has been specially set up by Citizen Lab in solidarity with users in India. Please publicise the existence of this proxy to other users in india. To better investigate the current process of blocking, Users are requested to report the exact error message they receive and any traceroute data. Send an e-mail to: <aiindex@mnet.fr> Organising further: I also propose the formation of a campaign group consisting of individuals moderating and managing groups on the groups.yahoo.com domain to challenge the India government, this ban lasts any further. Lets organise to beat the ban. Harsh Kapoor (South Asia Citizens Web) E-mail: <aiindex@mnet.fr> SELECTED ADDRESSES OF THE OFFICIALS AND BODIES TO WHOM PEOPLE MAY WRITE TO PROTEST OR TO SEEK THEIR INTERVENTION Arun Shourie (Minister of Communications & Information Technology & Disinvestment) Ist Floor,Electronics Niketan, Lodhi Road, New Delhi Email : ashourie@n... Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad (Minister of Information and Broadcasting) E-Mail: ravis@s... Phone: (91) 23384340, 23384782 Fax : (91) 23782118 Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) www.mit.gov.in/cert/ India's Department of Telecom www.dotindia.com/ ddgir@s... The Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) www.ispai.com/ Yahoo! India Web Services Ltd; Bombay office: 386, Veer Savarkar Marg Opp. Siddhivinayak Temple Mumbai 400025 Phone: +91-22-56622222 Fax: +91-22-56622244 Delhi Office: Yahoo! India Web Services Ltd; Ground Floor, First India Place, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road Gurgaon [Haryana]- 122002 Phone: +91-0124-5061888/9 (from Delhi 95124-5061888/9) Fax: +91-0124-2560057 solutions.yahoo.co.in/contact.html [* India's Official Human rights watch dog] National Human Rights Commission(NHRC) nhrc.nic.in/contact.htm ------ RECENT NEWS REPORTS & Selected URLs: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33049.html The Register India's Yahoo! Groups ban - update By Andrew Orlowski Posted: 25/09/2003 at 12:36 GMT India's blanket ban of Yahoo! Groups continues. It's not 100 per cent, but most of the largest ISPs have complied, removing access for over 80 per cent of users. The Government's Computer Emergency Response Team - which normally releases security and virus alerts - issued a block on all groups after Yahoo! refused to remove messages in the low-traffic 'kynhun' group. The group carried postings by banned secessionist group the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council. According to readers, these include In2Cable, Bharti's two ISPs Mantra Online and TouchTel India, consumer dialup provider Sify, Hathway and Siticable both cable providers, Caltiger, DDSL and BSNL. However a reader in Pondicherry says that VSNL and Dishnet dialup are permitting access; while one of VSNL's downstream providers is maintaining the blanket block. Siddharth Hegde writes in dismay: "It is truly a shame that a country like India blocks a website. What they do not know is that within a year the most computer illiterate person would have found a five-minute work around. There is no point in try to block websites - people will find work around. "I am a net user and use three ISPs - one Cable and two dial-ups. All three have blocked them. My cable connection (Hathway, VSNL and Satyam). Satyam would be the first one to pull off this as earlier they had blocked all adult websites without authorization from users." ?® o o o CIOL, September 25, 2003 India bans Yahoo! Groups http://www.ciol.com/content/news/2003/103092510.asp o o o The Hindu, Sep 25, 2003 Protest against blocking of Yahoogroups By Our Special Correspondent THIRUVANANTHAPURAM SEPT. 24. Protest is mounting against the blocking of the Yahoogroups by the Internet Service Providers (ISP) in the country on a directive from the Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. http://www.hindu.com/2003/09/25/stories/2003092507820400.htm o o o Paktibune.com, September 25, 2003 A hostile step to preclude freedom of speech in India Indian Govt. issued an order to ban yahoo group carrying messages on Govt's unjust policies http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=39303 o o o Mid Day, September 24, 2003 web.mid-day.com/news/city/2003/september/64623.htm o o o Economic Times, September 24, 2003 Is the government right in blocking all Yahoo groups? economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=199990 o o o Sify (Pioneer) September 24, 2003 'Govt has no right to block Yahoo group' sify.com/news/pioneer/fullstory.php?id=13259504&vsv=71 o o o Cnet Asia, Sept. 24, 2003 India blocks Yahoo web site By Staff, CNETAsia asia.cnet.com/newstech/industry/0,39001143,39152163,00.htm o o o Newindpress, September 24, 2003 Yahoo refuses to remove anti-India content, site blocked This is the first time a website has been blocked under Cert-IN since it came into being in July this year. Representatives of Yahoo in India had been www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20030923005101&Title=Top+Stories&rLink=0 o o o Editorial, Hindustan Times, September 24, 2003 No net gain for Big Brother www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_387920,0012.htm o o o News Today, September 24, 2003 Yahoo Groups continue to be blocked newstodaynet.com/23sep/ld1.htm BACKGROUND RESOURCES ON OTHER INSTANCES OF GOVT CENSORSHIP: [1] guide.vsnl.net.in/tcpip/columns/censorship/cc04.html Indian Government Ban of Net Access to Pakistani News Broken July 5, 1999 URL: www.rediff.com/computer/1999/jul/05dawn.htm The Economic and Political Weekly [Bombay, India] August 23, 2003 "Information Technology Act: Danger of Violation of Civil Rights by Sruti Chaganti [The full text of this article is available for all interested. Should you require a copy drop a note to <aiindex@mnet.fr> ------------------------------------------------------------ Courtesy:Harsh Kapoor/SACW http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex |
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| << September28, 2003 - [India Thinkers Net ] RSS holds key to 'tribal treasury' |
September29, 2003 - [India Thinkers Net] Euthanasia >> |
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