New Delhi Times - Gaurav Bhatnagar reporting from New Delhi, India

Gaurav,

I am afraid I can't agree with you. I haven't got any blogspot hosted blogs, so there is nothing personal involved, and I am not even an active blogger.

The ban could be based on a genuine desire to thwart terrorism. However, if the government of India is not tech-savvy like the bloggers, that is bad and should be exposed. We have IT and I & B ministers, and if they do not know the blogspot is not a terror organisation, they are idiots. Idiocy should be exposed. Sure bloggers can wait a few days and it will all be back to normal. But every time the giovernment makes a mistake (whether it is going to war, being clueless about anti-terrorism, or blocking sundry blogs), we have to call them on it. And show them up for the fools they are. We have to expose the bureaucracy that cannot even get a simple thing like this right - and these are the people who are running the country? You seriously expect them to get anything at all right?

Have you checked some of the blog that were on that list? exposingtheleft.blogspot.com, hinduunity -- these are terror blogs?

"The terrorist attack itself didn’t evoke such a strong response in the blogosphere but we can’t access blogspot for a couple of days and suddenly it is the end of the world. Geez." I object to this. I saw the bloggers doing commendable work on the night of the Mumbai blasts. And even if they did not and did not post a single helpline number or worse, went to sleep, that is at best a rhetorical point.

Nonsense should not be tolerated. And especially the kind of nonsense that leads to even inadvertant ontrol over freedom of expression, and governments with dictatorial tendencies usually err in that direction.

Somebody should teach P R Munshi what a blog is. Let us hope his peon's little daughter shows him how to use a mouse.

If the government can assure us that they will eliminate terrorism by blocking websites/blogs, then I am game for their decisions!

Matt - of course blogspot is not part of a terrorist organization. But it is a hosting service and it could be possibly used for hosting malicious content. Think from the government's perspective. They recieve some vague information and need to quickly act upon it. I know its a knee jerk reaction but where human lives are involved, what do you do? Post 9/11, airport security in the US reached annoyingly insane levels - to an extent that it made no sense. But people had to put up with it. We live in such times unfortunately.

I do agree that the government needs to be more tech savvy and we have to call it out when we spot their incompetence. But we need to understand that this particular situation is not an attempt at censorship or curtailing our freedom of speech. It is an (even if lame) attempt to fight terrorism. So let us support it. It is well intentioned. Let us work with the government and offer assistance. Let us not blast them or compare the situation with China.

I agree that the bloggers did get into action on the night of Mumbai blasts and I apologize for overlooking that.

Single, most odinary thought from you. Ever.

Sorry.

In their list of sites they have a problem too, there is a blog called Princess Kimberly on blogspot. I really don't think the terrorists are using it to send coded messages, its a two year old blog with 2 posts.

Also, they haven't blocked other blog hosting services such as Rediff, livejournal, xanga etc, those places are free and available to terrorists too. If they are really serious about this they should go after everything.
Also couldn't they block specific sites within Blogspot or Typepad, i know the ISP addresses are the same, but even then couldn't they find a solution to that?

I am not so sure. The govtt's claim maybe legitimate but this hardly seems to be the solution. The internet cannot be treated like some kind of parking place which is cleared if a terrorist is suspected to be there. That apart, the terrorists can always communicate through email or their own websites so it hardly really matters.

Such curbs on freedom can be misused by the politicians for their own vested interests.

Jatin/Hiren - I completely agree that this move is not really very useful. But I am just trying to point out that it was a well intentioned move and it does not appear at all that the Govt. was trying to suppress free speech.

Manish - sorry to disappoint you man! But I felt that for once we were bashing the govt. unfairly!

Gaurav,

I am a bit torn on this issue. Living in the US and watching civil liberties in the US being trampled in the name of "homeland security", I am a bit weary of any "Democratic" government censoring information. However, it is important for any government to protect their citizens. Whether is 9/11/01 or 7/11/06, it is a difficult balance between trampling on the civil liberties of your citizens and protecting them.
If the government is censoring certain blogs pending an investigation of how they might have been used by terrorists, I support the temporary ban.
However, if the government is banning all blogs hosted on blogspot and other sites as a knee-jerk reaction and not quite understanding the technology they are using, and not having any plans to release the ban within a reasonable amount of time, then the government is trampling on the civil liberties of their citizens without a clear picture of how the ban is going to protect the citizenry. If a terrorist had used a landline or mobile phone 15 years ago to communicate with other terrorists, would it have been reasonable for a governmment to ban all mobile and landline phones? No.

Hi,
I reached your blog while doing my research on Microsoft.
Sorry for bothering but I'd be grateful if you could take some time and advise me.

I am an engineering fresher (2006 passout) living in gurgaon and have landed an offer from Microsoft for SDE/T position.
I was apprehensive about the 'T' tag in the beggining of my career but have finally decided to go for it after 2 weeks of research about the profile (mostly on net-- blogs etc).

What I have summed up is:

1. SDE/t is not a bad profile and there's considerable amount of development involved.

2. Testing in itself is not as bad a domain as the name it has, especially at MS it's treated at par with dev.

3. At MS, there's ample scope for internal transfers between teams and roles if you perform.

However I have also come across a lot of discouraging posts especially on mini microsoft

I'd like you to comment if my conclusions are correct and if I have made a good decision.
I have another offer from Flextronics Software Systems in hand.

Would the 'T' make it really difficult moving to development from SDE/T, if I want too? And howz the work profile of an SDE/T?

In anticipation...

Tushar Malhotra

Even if Government is being bashed, it should be bashed for lack of understanding of technology. I fail to understand the logic behind comparions with China and any reference to censorship. The blogspot is neither being permanently blocked, nor is any content being deleted.

If i am Government, and i get credible intelligence input that certain blogs hosted on blogspot are being used by terrorist for communication, i'd rather block the entire blogspot domain for sometime. Yes, there are ways to still access those blogs and new blogs can also be created but the block would certainly disrupt their exisiting channel and add a timelag before the new information and protocols can be circulated among the terrorist module.

One of the most disgusting argument i often hear is to reject a measure because it is not completely foolproof. I believe that even if a measure improves things by 10%, it is worth it. You can ofcourse improvise later. Just because a padlock can be easily broken, doesent mean you dont put one on your door...or do you?

First of all sorry for my 'off topic' posts, but I do not know of a better way of communicating with you.

After I posted my previous query, I continued reading your blog and found it great mostly because I could relate to it in umpteen ways. Here's a list :) :-

1. I am from and live in gurgaon.

2. I am aware of Techkriti. One of my good friend's best friend is working with you: Rahul Tattoo

3. I was glad to read your posts on recruting freshers, Mass recruitments by infy etc. Why? allow me to elaborate: I am a fresher from a small time college (ITM Gurgaon) so I was glad to read that you don't have a bias against candidates like me.

4. I dream of starting my own company some day and have a few products in mind.

5. I am all set to join MSFT in Hyderabad on monday. Since you are an old timer, you are my senior..kind of..

6. I don't know many technologies yet (In fact, I only know C/C++/Java and the basics of DS/ADA, OS, DBMS etc, don't have much practical exposure) but I am fascinated by technology and want to learn and work at the cutting edge. I gave up an offer from S.P. Jain coz I didn't want to get into management. So, I kind of relate to every geek.

P.S. you are my senior and being an engineering fresher, I am inclined to call you 'Sir' if that's fine with you :)

Your blog is Inspirational.

Tushar

Tushar - thanks for your comments. Firstly, if you want to do cutting edge work and you live in Gurgaon, you really should be interviewing at Tekriti ;-) That said, if your mind is made on Microsoft, you need not worry about taking up a test position there. Microsoft gives lot of importance to testing and as an SDE/T you get plenty of oppurtunity to do development work as well. Yes, it is possible to transfer between groups there. Don't worry about what you read in mini-microsoft. None of that is relevant for a fresher joining MSFT. Feel free to email me (gaurav at tekritisoftware dot com) if you have more specific questions. All the best!

p.s: no, don't call me sir. I am not THAT much older than you!

"Yes it is a form of censorship. Yes, the government is moronic enough to not realize that you cant really censor the internet"
Are you trying to say it's ok to have a moronic government that takes knee jerk reactions in order to apparently, by defying logic, save human lives?
"There was credible information that certain blogs were being used to pass on sensitive information amongst terrorists."
Whether the suggestion came from the credible source (CERT - gasp!), or this knee-jerk reaction was based on some information, if all they can do is put blanket ban on blogger/typepad, then I doubt the credibility of this information itself. Not to imagine terrorists who are foolish enough to use a public hosting platform to transfer sensitive information. The worst I can think of is trying to muster support.
"A lot of folks in the blogosphere are tech savvy and they realize that nothing can really be blocked off (proxies et al) but your average government official is not that tech. savvy. In his/her effort to make sure that terrorist communication could be cut off, somebody ordered a blanket ban (or the ISPs interpreted it that way)."
A lot of bloggers may be tech savvy, but the readers aren't necessarily. For a person who usually visits photo blogs to see some good pictures, it may be hard to find if there is a way around.
“Either way, it was an attempt to thwart terrorism. So it’s OK if we can’t get our dose of blogs for a few days.”
Support this, and you’ll to see more ingenious ways to thwart terrorist that may make you eat your words :)
No, I don't subscribe to this innocent action by our naive government to save lives of our vulnerable citizens. Much as I would wish for this action to be in favour of the general good, it's not. The disadvantage of stifling a healthy debating atmosphere is evident. So is the autocratic intent behind this.
Sorry about the huge comment!

the govt, in its position of high responsiblity and power shouldnt make such an uninformed decision. this was done without consulting anyone, which shouldnt have been the case if the guys passing these bans arent tech-savvy.
this ban is of basically no use, since if i was a terrorist, i wouldnt shut shop if blogspot was banned. heck, if the terrorists are really serious about this, they would have hosted their own domains, and now anyway, they'll be using proxies and the like to pass on sensitive information.
all they are managing through this is inconvenience us a bit, not stop us from doin whatever we're doing.
i suppose there's an ulterior motive behind this all...... maybe to curb freedom of speech, what say?

Government ordered individual blogs to be put out of circulation. ISPs are responsible for blocking out the entire blog hosting sites. Everybody is accusing the Government of not being tech savvy. What about the ISPs?

Gaurav,

I can hardly agree with you. It's a slippery slope we are on once we acquiesce to censorship however necessary it might be. As Benjamin Franklin so rightly said "The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either".

Yes, it was the idiot ISP's who could not figure out how to do selective blocking.

It however is the even more idiotic government "babus" thinking they can block information on the internet without a Great Firewall of India (like our giant neighbor to the east - who are finding out that even that thing can be circumvented).

Further since terrorists use the phone to talk to each other, why not just jam all phones or since they breathe air, just vacuum up the atmosphere or since they drink water, just turn off the water supply .... the list goes on and on.

While I don't believe that blocking of the blogs was meant to stop terrorists communicating with each toher, I agree that it is a possibility. After all, terrorists could be dumb too - if govts can be, so can they.

On the other hand, blocking bloodspot.com, exposingtheleft.blogspot.com, hindunity etc shows something else - that this was not connected to terror at all, and certain political views the govt prefer to destroy.

The other point is the lack of an official bureaucratic explanation. Not a single newspaper have managed to pin down the person responsible for this. That is a sure sign of someone recognising their idiocy too late, or someone who believes that as they are in the govt, they are not accountable to anyone.

I am mostly horrified by the levels of idiocy exhibited in this - if these are the people who are responsible for saving the country from terrorism, God help us. This wonderful example of their efficiency makes me scared to walk out on the streets, or to get into a train again.

Gaurav,

I am absolutely with you on this one. If the Govt had that much technical knowledge to do a "proper" ban, of only those related sites, we would be in a much better position by now.

They sit there issuing statements and people are all over the place yelling. They try to get a bit aggressive and blocking some sites to suppress some activity, and people are screaming again.

Democracy in India seems very much like ruling a mob. There is no way to win.

If anyone had one thought of those that had lost their loved ones, for reasons they can't understand or comprehend, then they'd atleast stop complaining about their ability of not being able to read blogs. Seriously! talk about screwed up priorities :)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13932372/
“The Indian Internet service providers don’t have the technological wherewithal to block specific blogs on a blogging site. Consequently, they ended up blocking the entire site,” said technology expert Pawan Duggal.

India is leader in IT, and govt. needs to understand this clearly, instead of putting huge ministries they need to work with people from IT sector and work on cyber security. But alas they are least worried about India or its security!

Its a shame, the country which has now proven to be of IT minds, internet traffic is blocked because govt. does not know how to block specific sites.

Anyway, the sites that are blocked seem to be opposed to the government's idea of what is acceptable to it - for example, does it require any great logic to understand that an idiot government would like to block a site like exposingtheleft.blogspot.com - its partners are the Left!

As far as princesskimberly.blogspot is concerned, for all you know, one of the babu's daughters must have been using it to post her own nude pix!

Vijay--
"Democracy in India seems very much like ruling a mob. There is no way to win." Very amusing statement here: Democracy *is* rule by the people. And where did the question of *winning* come from !!
"If anyone had one thought of those that had lost their loved ones, for reasons they can't understand or comprehend, then they'd atleast stop complaining about their ability of not being able to read blogs. Seriously! talk about screwed up priorities :)"
Most bloggers are expressing their concern and opinions on what should be done to avoid such disasters. Some others are analyizing the handling of security that led to this disaster (the bomb blasts). And still others, like mumbaihelp.blogspot.com, are actually putting up a helpline to pitch in. What *screwed up* priorities are you talking about?

Let me guess what would have happened in the corridors of power:

Minister A : "Oh My God!!" Mumbai is burning.

Minister B : Shit !! We are gonna get screwed.

Minister C : Do something, do something.

All walk up to PM, an emergency meeting is called, Police/Army chiefs are summoned. Everyone has a dark fallen face. Some are still brave enough to joke about what happened last night (how the other girl rejected their invitation and they still got her!).

PM: We gotta do something.

All : Hmmm ...

PM: What action are we taking.

Police: Blocked all communication out of Mumbai, forces are doing everything.

PM: (In words of wisdom often seen) - Before things go out of hand lets prevent the next round of coward attacks.

---- Lot of discussion ---

Next day:

PM: What about blocking terrorist's communication.

IT Minister: We cant block email.

PM: Is that the only way?

IT Minister: Well .. let me consult my expert. (calls the expert who is on leave)

Next man to expert helps: Sir, it can be blogs also. My son does lot of good blogging these days. HA HA HA

IT Minister: Shut up. Ask your son and shut the web site. Any other ways?

Expert2 thinks hard: Not that anything comes to mind Sir.

IT Minister: OK block it (the website). Turns to PM.

IT Minister to PM: Sir. We have taken affirmative action and secured internet security.

(Phone ringing, Expert2 calling)

IT Minister: Ab Kya hai?? Ma******* .

Expert2: Sir, how can we simply block the site ... what will people say??

IT Minister: Do we know of some bad sites?

Expert2: Sir, this is not _a_ site. It is a collection of sites.

IT Minister: Yeah yeah .. do we know of a bad site in the collection.

Expert2: Yes Sir. some are bad. My son often sees many inciting religious issues etc.

IT Minister: make a list (also search) and block them.

Expert2: Sir, selective blocking is not possible as far as I know.

IT Minister: Ma******* time kharab mat kar .. block them all.

IT Minister to PM: Sir, expert had some problems. Dont know what they teach in colleges these days. Expert1 is on leave Sir. I will get him back at once. But dont worry Sir - problem solved . Grins and looks at others over his shoulders. Others are red with jealousy.

--- Meeting continues ---

A sample from the list of blocked sites (for complete list, see http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/19blogs.htm?q=np&file=.htm):

1. www .hinduunity.org
2. mypetjawa.mu.nu
3. pajamaeditors.blogspot.com
4. exposingtheleft.blogspot.com
...

Unless the terrorists are using some really clever cryptographic code on these sites, I dont see how they were being used to communicate sensitive information

Come on folks, don't be this naive. I'm sure they had this in mind for long, and now they have a reason -- national security. Interestingly, none of the blogs have any terror content. Heard one of the blogs was anti Sonia Gandhi...Congress government and banning islamic blogs. Come on give me a break. They would rather ban blogs that critizes militant islam, and say that islam is a religion of peace. One of the blocked blogs was sarcstic when it refered to Islam as a religion of peace.

Even if you say that government banned terror blogs, what are they going to do abou t social networks, emails, cell phones, why even snail mail and landline phones. What next? Install cell phone jammers everywhere, since terrorist used cellphones?

Come on folks, don't be this naive. I'm sure they had this in mind for long, and now they have a reason -- national security. Interestingly, none of the blogs have any terror content. Heard one of the blogs was anti Sonia Gandhi...Congress government and banning islamic blogs. Come on give me a break. They would rather ban blogs that critizes militant islam, and say that islam is a religion of peace. One of the blocked blogs was sarcstic when it refered to Islam as a religion of peace.

Even if you say that government banned terror blogs, what are they going to do abou t social networks, emails, cell phones, why even snail mail and landline phones. What next? Install cell phone jammers everywhere, since terrorist used cellphones?

As you probably noticed, it was censorship in it's purest form. A lot of the blogs they banned had hate speech on them but they only popularized these blogs. In any case, blocking blogspot by banning the domain would have been completely useless were terrorists actually using it to communicate.

aye aye :). Already shared my views on this on the list. Too much hulla for a molehill. Yahoogroups was banned earlier, in a week, the ban was lifted sans this kind of bawandar in the blogsosphere.

The ISP's are to blame. They should really learn some techy stuff before going ahead blindly. That's all there is to this "issue".

You will not support it after you know the details. Go through this blog post.
http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/003600.html#more

The banning of the blogs had nothing to with Terrorists it had everything to do with current govt's insecurities. They banned a guy's personal website because he was linking to various Hindu groups websites.

This is ridiculous. I feel bad that Dr Singh is leading such a government.

GAURAV

DID U SEEK PERMISSION FROM THE GOVT. BEFORE WRITING THIS ARTICLE???

PLZ ENLIGHTEN US

Interestingly, most of the 17 blocked sites have nothing to do with India or Mumbai. Half of them are hosted by conservative right wing Americans that support Israel and the war in Iraq. A few others talk of Hindu unity and stuff about human right issues in Pakistan and Bangladesh (Read attrocities agianst the minority Hindus).

But sadly for the government, most of the sites are harsh on terrorism in general and on the "religion of peace" in particular. Oh that is some reason for the 'liberal secular' government of India. Is it not?
After the government has to protect its 'minorities'.

Whats more funny is none of sites that spread hatred against India and Hindus have been blocked. If you asked what about the majority? Err...Well you know the answer.

Interestingly, most of the 17 blocked sites have nothing to do with India or Mumbai. Half of them are hosted by conservative right wing Americans that support Israel and the war in Iraq. A few others talk of Hindu unity and stuff about human right issues in Pakistan and Bangladesh (Read attrocities agianst the minority Hindus).

But sadly for the government, most of the sites are harsh on terrorism in general and on the "religion of peace" in particular. Oh that is some reason for the 'liberal secular' government of India. Is it not?
After the government has to protect its 'minorities'.

Whats more funny is none of sites that spread hatred against India and Hindus have been blocked. If you asked what about the majority? Err...Well you know the answer.

Well, Gaurav, meboy, you got an earful on this one, didn't you?

If history has taught us anything, it's that censorship, hatred, discrimination and similar attacks on indvidual dignity CANNOT be implemented with surgical precision without the poison seeping through and corrupting the entire system.

McCarthyism in the US was a well-intentioned, patriotic censorship of communists, and do you know how many innocent people got caught in the net and their lives destroyed?

Come off it Gaurav. Have you seen the sites they blocked? And, if messages were being passed (we need to call in the steganographists) why not try and intercept them. Terrorists also use mobile phones. Are they to be banned? What about vehicles? The list is endless.

In any case, read the banned blogs and you'll realise that the government does not know what it is doing. The latest example is the three people driving up to the PM's residence and the PMO issuing a statement that it wasn't a breach of security.

We put more emphasis on style than on substance. The blog ban is part of the same mind set.

Sandeep, as I said in the update to this post, I agree that this ban didn't have anything to do with fighting terrorism. Prima facie, it appeared that it did and hence my initial support for it.