The man who wants Facebook censored doesn't use Facebook himself
Vinay Rai, the censorship crusader India doesn't need, is a journalist (edits a Weekly Urdu publication Akbari) on his 'quest' to rid online websites of 'bad stuff':
WSJ: Why didn’t you notify the social networking Web sites of the content and ask them to remove it – many sites offer such functionality?
VR: I did not deem it appropriate to approach foreign companies myself. I put my point across to the government who, in my view, is the best body to pursue this with multinationals.
and,
WSJ: How often do you visit these sites? Do you have a Facebook account?VR: I’m not too active on social media. I registered on Facebook over 2 years ago but deactivated my account a few months later. This was because my inbox was flooded with external applications, requests and games sent by unknown users via the website. Since I wasn’t too familiar with the content, I deactivated my account.
WSJ: How did you collect information from Facebook pages and groups if you weren’t a registered user?VR: Several readers of our newspaper, Akbari, alerted us to defamatory and abusive content on these social networking sites. Being a journalist, I pursued the matter. Furthermore, you don’t necessarily need to register to browse content on groups and pages on Facebook.
Labels: censorship, facebook, india
Annals of Internet Blocking, India Edition
A list of links the Department of Information Technology (DIT) in India has had blocked, as published by
CIS India. Please note that DIT denies having issued any such order.
(a) www.zone.h.org (ED: Blocked by MTNL Delhi)
(b) http://donotdial100.webs.com (IP 216.52.115.50) (ED: Blocked by MTNL Delhi)
(c) www.bloggernews.net/124029 (ED: Criticising Zone-H. Looks like a censorship/Freedom of speech issue. Works on MTNL, Delhi)
(d) http://www.google.co.in/#h1=en&source=hp&biw=1276&bih=843&=dr+babasaheb+ambedkar+wallpaper&aq=4&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=dr+babas&gs_rfai=&fp=e791fe993fa412ba (ED: Blocked by MTNL Delhi)
(e) http://www.cinemahd.net/desktop-enhancements/wallpaper/23945-wallpapers-beautiful-girl-wallpaper.html (ED: Blocked by MTNL Delhi)
(f) http://www.chakpak.com/find/images/kamasutra-hindi-movie (is a Canaan Partners funded website; page blocked by MTNL Delhi)
(g) http://www.submitlink.khatana.net/2010/09/jennifer-stano-is-engaged-to.html (ED: Blocked by MTNL Delhi)
(h) http://www.result.khatana.net/2010/11/im-no-panty-girl-yana-gupta-wardrobe.html (ED: Blocked by MTNL Delhi)
(i) http://www.facebook.com/pages/l-Hate-Ambedkar/172025102828076 (ED: Redirects to Facebook homepage)
(j) www.indybay.org (ED: Blocked by MTNL Delhi)
(k) www.arizona.indymedia.org (ED: Blocked by MTNL Delhi)
If you suspect any link is being blocked by your ISP, file in a Right to Information (RTI) application with DIT. Keep in mind that often some vested interest (
most commonly, a business that does not like its criticism on another site - for example, Zone-H above) has moved ahead and put in a complaint, and the easiest thing the government can do is block the link.
Link thanks to
Nikhil PahwaLabels: censorship, india, law
Memo to Mark Cuban: Bloggers aren’t going anywhere
Dear Mark, you write in your blog (hope you note the irony) that since “
anyone can be a blogger in 10 seconds”, you were forced to make a judgment call and you banned bloggers from accessing your Dallas Mavericks team.
What was it that you didn’t like about Bloggers?- Did they not hero worship you, like the clueless mainstream people do?
- Was it the trademark bite and spite from bloggers, which you thought wouldn’t gel well with the Mavericks’ fantastic comeback run? - Is it about controlling the message?You write that a blog is a blog is a blog. Yes indeed. A blogger can do things a news reporter cannot. It was a blog that brought the Larry Craig story to light. Bloggers are in jail in countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia for daring to speak out. Bloggers are running for political power in Thailand and Ukraine.
I can go on and on…
You say that ‘there is TV, and there is HBO’. Agreed, American Idol is for kids, but what about PBS? Bad analogies do not a argument make. Public broadcasting and Free voice are the touchstones of democracy, always building beachheads against the relentless tides of hidden agendas and stakes.
You became rich by making a fool out of Yahoo. Wikipedia notes that the sale of Broadcast.com to Yahoo for, what was it, $5.7 million, was a ‘
silicon valley joke’ -
As of 2007, neither broadcast.com nor broadcast.yahoo.com are distinct web addresses.Point is, you made it big, playing all the 'right' cards in the Digital Industry. Hell, in some circles, they even consider you as free-wheeling ‘maverick’,
a poster boy for ‘get rich quick’ dreams – please do not kick your fellow bloggers into a
digital ghetto.
Your blogger ban is plain silly. Some day, the Mavericks may hit a trough, as is the circle of life, and then it will be a lonely fan who will blog on for your team, galvanizing other fans, not some big media outfit, which prefers to ride with the stars only.
Do what is right.
Peace.
Labels: blogging. ethics, censorship, citizen journalism, controversey, dallas mavericks, mark cuban
The Wikileaks FAQ
I have tried to answer some important questions related to the
Wikileaks shutdown order and what we can do if we are in a similar position or if we want to bring the truth out by publishing important documents.
1. What is Wikileaks?A site that hosts leaked documents. Hosted on servers in Sweden so far.
2. Why did the court in California order it shut down?While the conventional reasoning goes that Wikileaks hosted documents that were illegally sourced, people in the know say that the judge may have given his order because they could not find the person to whom they could serve a notice.
3. Can a US court order a web site hosted in Sweden shut?No. But, the US government is supposed to have a great working relationship with the Swedish Authorities. In a previous case, the Pirate Bay was shut down (later, it relocated to Holland).
4. Can a site be shut down completely?No. You can host your site anywhere in the world. You can also provide copies of your site (or, encourage people to do so) spread throughout the site.
In case of Wikileaks, only the DNS servers, which are in the United States, remove the site's name from their database. So, you can still access the site if you know their IP address.
5. What else can I do to make sure my site continues to have a life?You can start with having regular backup files (e.g. .zip files) and distribute them, making them available as downloads via anyone who chooses to host the zip file.
6. What information did the leaked documents in question contain?Reportedly leaked by a whistle blower at Julius Baer, the leaked documents allegedly reveal secret Julius Baer trust structures used for asset hiding, money laundering and tax evasion.
7. Can I register a site without giving proof of my address?The domain name system (DNS) is a service that converts web names into the IP addresses that the web servers use requires a real person to be registered as the owner of a site, irrespective of the site's location.
In case of Wikileaks, they are supposed to have registered their site in the United States having convinced an architect in New York to do the needful.
If you do not have such reach, you may try the following combination:Find a registrar or any web site registration intermediary who accepts cash and will look the other way while you enter false addresses and names, including a disposable email address, where you will be receiving the receipt from the registrar in the U.S.
Useful links related to the Wikileaks Case- Wikileaks.org IP address: 88.80.13.160
- The Julius Baer documents in question: http://cryptome.org/wikileaks-bjb.zip (3 MB file)
- List of Wikileaks mirror sites: http://wikileaks.cx/wiki/Wikileaks:Cover_Names
- The complete Wikileaks site as a torrent: http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4034919/WikileakS.org_mirror_archive_(Feb_10th_2008)
Related MediaVidea Guide:Bypassing Internet Censorship - A RoundupLabels: censorship, controversey, faq, legal, tip, wikileaks
