The Jawa Report: Banned in India

Rusty Shackleford has been begging to have a fatwa issued against his blog for years with no luck. The closest he’s come have been a few denial of service attacks from the Islamists.

Now, however, he’s been banned in India, the world’s largest democracy. By name. And it wasn’t even for posting cartoons of Muhammed. Or cows.

UPDATE: WSJ has more details.

India’s Internet regulators have started blocking several Web sites in a move that borrows a page from China, where government censors heavily restrict the flow of online information. India’s Department of Telecommunications sent an order late last week to Internet-service providers to block several Web sites, according to a department spokesman. The spokesman, Rajesh Malhotra, declined to disclose the contents of the letter or discuss the order, saying it was a “confidential exchange of information between the department and the operators.”

Several telecom operators confirmed there were more than 15 sites they were directed to block. Close to a third of the sites were home to blogs, the personalized Web logs that have become popular in India, just as they have in other parts of the world. Among the Web sites blocked are parts of Blogger and GeoCities. Included on a list seen by The Wall Street Journal are sites that showcase views of an Islamic holy man, conservative Hindus, and Dalits, the low caste in India pejoratively referred to as untouchables.

Hmm. Doesn’t exactly explain Jawa Report . . . .

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Bithead says:

    Seems BitsBlog been banned in India as well.
    (Shrug)
    There goes the hit numbers I’d been collecting in the overnights from the helpdesks of Dell, etc…

    (Smirk)

  2. McGehee says:

    I feel left out. Guess I’ll have to blacklist all of India in revenge for their not blocking Yippee-Ki-Yay!

  3. They are blocking the tubes man. Any minute now the pressure is going to build, burst the pipes and we will have bits flying all over the place. If only we had a senator with enough understanding of the Internet to clear the blockage before the pressure builds to the point of no return.