idI have been following the story on the Indian Blogger woes recently. I for one, did not think that it was pure censorship. However, I ahve been fighting my own battles on this thought process here.
i just pulled a copy of the directive from here, which clearly indicates that the blogs targeted were indivdiuals and NOT any blog platform at all.
The Sites are clearly written down;
1. http://www.hinduunity.org
2. http://mypetjava.mu.nu
3. http://pajamaeditors.blogspot.com
4. http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com
5. http://thepiratescove.us
6. http://commonfolkcommonsense.blogspot.com
7. http://bamapachyderm.com
8. http://prinesskimberly.blogspot.com
9. http://merrimusings.typepad.com
10. http://mackers-world.com
11. http://dalitstan.com
12. http://hinduhumanrights.org/hindufocus.html
13. http://nndh.com (fax scan unclear, could be wrong)
14. http://bloodroyaltriped.com
15. http://imagesearch.yahoo.com
16. http://imamali8.com
17. http://rahulyadav.com
I personally trolled each of these sites and have found some of them to be "inflamary" by nature. And certainly slanted away from the government and its viewpoints. Are they really worthy of being banned, I dont think so.
However, I am still questioning the validity of the document. Why would the Indian Governement want to pull a Japenese blog [item#6] ?? How many bloggers in India read Japense eh ?? Is this document a "fixed" . The last item[17] has nothing within it , its about a student [Rahul Yadav] who has only 1 posting ..
Whats happening here ?? Anyone would like to share comments ??
Update#1: Peter Griffen is working out the exact list. The fax seems fuzzy. Apoliges for any errors !!
Update#2 : Rediff has the listing too. Still appears to be a "shadow" operation in play- my opinion!!
The least the Indians could do was spell my blog url correctly!!!
Posted by: Rusty Shackleford | July 19, 2006 at 10:02 PM
Hi Peter, thanks for doing all this work! It's very strange, the list of sites they chose to ban. None of the ones I know have ever said anything that would be seen as insulting to India in the least--in fact, quite the opposite. Islamic extremists, YES. Not that it should matter who it offends, of course.
The Common Folk Common Sense blog IS an American blog, but switched from Blogspot to their own domain (http://www.commonfolkusingcommonsense.com/). A lot of bloggers who switch from Blogspot to their own domain cancel their Blogger accounts, and then their old Blogspot URL gets snatched up, usually by a spammer/splogger. That's apparently the case here. Same thing happened with Merri Musings when she moved from Typepad (although at least she got her nasty squatter kicked off Typepad).
And it looks like Princess Kimberley (it IS Kimberley, with an "e") had the same thing happen. Look at this:
http://www.blogger.com/profile/26676945
Apparently this Tony guy is just some jerk that snatches up blog addresses. I know for a fact that it used to belong to someone else, but I have no idea where she went. She probably got tired of death threats from Islamists.
Posted by: Beth | July 20, 2006 at 04:08 AM
Rusty--> don't shot the messenage, I am just working the list :)-
Beth, your correct. None of these sites warrent a ban. But thats my opinion only and I think I am right as many have said the same. For whatever reason's the GOI have decided to continue to enforce the ban on these sites.
Posted by: /pd | July 20, 2006 at 12:35 PM
There is more at play here than a 'ban'
Posted by: The Great Indian Mutiny | July 21, 2006 at 02:00 AM
Great articel with good information thank you.
Posted by: manns | August 30, 2006 at 12:58 PM