India Imposes Ban on Blogs: Your Questions Answered

Friday, July 21, 2006

Everything you wanted to know about the recent ban on popular websites in India - an FAQ:

Q. Which sites are blocked in India ?

Access to all blogs and websites hosted on the following servers is currently blocked in India.

• xxx.blogspot.com/
• xxx.typepad.com/
• xxx.blogs.com/
• www.geocities.com/xxx

For strange reasons, blogs hosted on Wordpress, Livejournal, MSN Spaces, Rediffblogs, IndiaTimes and Yahoo 360° are spared by the Indian censors and they are still accessible in India.

Q. Why is the Indian Government banning blog sites ?

While there is no official comment, most people are speculating that the ban is connected to the recent Mumbai Train Blasts. Probably the groups behind the bomb blasts used blogs to exchange information and co-ordinate the plan so the Government decided to ban these sites.

Q. Are all blogspot.com sites banned in India ?

Yes, all blogs hosted on blogspot.com are banned. According to some reports, the India Government issued a directive to block only certain blogs on *.blogspot.com but the ISPs decided to block the entire blogspot.com domain.

Q. When will the Blogspot ban be lifted ?

The issue is picking momentum in India and the entire Indian blogosphere is speaking in one voice against the ban. Popular international sites like Rediff Abroad, Mercury News, BoingBoing, MichelleMalkin, Google Blogoscoped, Digg and Techmeme have also picked the story. Again, no official word on when the ban would be lifted but it could happen very soon depending on the media cry.

Q. Did India restrict access to other sites before ?

Yes, earlier a ban was imposed on Yahoogroups.com but it was lifted in a week's time.

Q. I am a Blogger. Can I still blog ?

Yes, the good news is that access is blogger.com has not been blocked. So you can still publish new articles though readers in India may not be able to access them directly. Remember to publish full text feeds.

Q. I am blog subscriber. Can I still read blogspot or typepad blogs ?

Yes, but you can read them only in a web based rss reader which downloads the Blog XML feeds on server located outside India. Or use a proxy server.

» How to Access a Blocked Website or Blog

» What Bloggers Can Do To Bypass Blogspot Ban

Q. As a Blogger, what can I do to prevent such a situation in future ?

Buy your own domain name and switch from Blogger immediately. Don't consider shifting to another free platform like xxx.wordpress.com or indiatimes.com or rediffblogs.com as risk of banning virtually remains the same.

Q. I am in India, how do I read Digital Inspiration ?

http://www.pkblogs.com/labnol
http://feeds.feedburner.com/labnol

Q. Where do I get more information about the ban ?

Head straight to Bloggers ollective - it has reactions and updates from Indian Bloggers located in and outsite India. Some nice conversations happening there.