India is putting in a screening system at landing stations to block websites and blogs that are perceived as threats to national security, reports the Economic Times. The last time they attempted something like this, individual ISPs were asked to block access and they messed things up by blocking access to all blogspot, typepad and geocities websites, instead of select ones. Indian bloggers rallied together and following condemnation from both within India and internationally, the problems at the ISP end were sorted out. This time around, India is planning to block access at international gateways. According to the Economic Times, the Department of Telecom had recently called for presentations for equipment for blocking websites. What we don’t know is what exactly the government means by ‘a threat to national security’. Again, it doesn’t take long to start a new blog, so how effective can this ever be?
Related:
- India Lifts Blanket Ban On Blogs; Only Certain Subdomains To Be Blocked