[shub001]

Read This:
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http://www.mid-day.com/news/city/200...mber/64623.htm
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'Anti-national' Yahoo Groups blocked
By: Shibu Thomas
September 24, 2003
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Cyberspace users in India are up in arms against the government. For the first time since the Information Technology Act, 2000, was introduced, the government has banned a site, Yahoo Groups, for publishing anti-government material. Many netizens believe the government is trying to gag the Internet, a medium for free flow of information.

On Monday, when Yahoo users tried to access Yahoo Groups, they got error messages saying the site had been blocked. Neville Taraporewala, who heads yahoo.com’s India operations said, “We received no communication from the government. We realised Yahoo Groups had been blocked when users started calling us. On checking with the Internet Service Providers (ISPs), we came to know the government had told them to block the site.”

The government move came stealthily. In a notification dated August 10, 2003, Jayant Kumar, director, DoT, asked ISPs to block groups.yahoo.com/groups/kynhun for “promoting anti-national news and containing material against the Government of India and the state government of Meghalaya.” The Kynhun Group, which has barely 25 members and a total of 20 messages, is run by an organisation called Hynniewtrep International Liberation Council.

Though some of the messages call for independence, many of them are about corruption, police brutality against minorities and lack of public infrastructure.

A VSNL spokesperson said, “If the government issues a notification, the ISPs have to fall in line.” However, since the technology to block a particular group is complicated, ISPs have completely blocked access to the whole of Yahoo Groups.

Valerie Pinto, Yahoo’s official spokesperson said, “Yahoo India has no jurisdiction over the content since it is stored in servers in the US. The content is not generated by Yahoo, but by users.” Yahoo now plans to take up the issue with the government.

Internet users are furious. “This is a violation of freedom of expression and sets a dangerous precedent of censorship and control over the Internet in India,” said Harsh Kapoor of the South Asia Citizens’ Web in a message.

For now the government’s move seems to have fallen flat on its face. Most users are able to access the messages of Kynhun through Google search caches.

What is banned
The government wanted the Kynhun Group banned from cyberspace. But ISP blocked Yahoo Groups — a service provided by Yahoo, where users can form their own groups to share ideas and information. 

Who has banned it 
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which was set up in July 2003, and operates under the Union government’s Department of Information Technology (DoT).

In bad company
* Russia forces ISPs to install surveillance equipment. 
* Burma’s “Cyberspace Warfare Centre” hacks into computers that receive or send forbidden messages. 
* In China “cyber-dissidents” have been imprisoned. 
* In Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia as well as Iran, access to the web is restricted to government servers and subject to strict surveillance.

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You can go to the SITE and post your views there too.
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Isn't this anti democratic and WRONG??????

[shub001]

For now the government’s move seems to have fallen flat on its face. Most users are able to access the messages of Kynhun through Google search caches.

But looks like they have even talked to google people, coz it is not showing up anything when searched not :(
Let me ask our search expert anil to please confirm that

[Indyan]

Hey ,
Thatzy I am anot able to access CAT-2003 and other groups .There are so many yahoogroups that provide useful content and material and where we can share info.Govt should ban th9ose groups which are antinational.What is the purpose of banning all the groups ? :

Hope they will be removing the ban soon

[Absolutely Agent]

something fishy here :

the news was that "one" particular grp was being banned by indian govt

actually it was like this
one perticular yahoo grp had antinational statements
indian govt asked yahoo to ban that grp
they refused
so indian govt got "that" address blocked from from isp

rest all yahoo grp are working fine(atleast for me)

[zeus]

yup...me still not able to access yahoogroups....guess it depends on the isp!

Zeus

[shub001]

A VSNL spokesperson said, “If the government issues a notification, the ISPs have to fall in line.” However, since the technology to block a particular group is complicated, ISPs have completely blocked access to the whole of Yahoo Groups.

even I am not able to access the whole yahoo groups site, and thats what is supposed to happen , so if u are able to access the site, your isp is at fault
Note: accessing site and able to get emails from the group are two different things

[Absolutely Agent]

Originally Posted by shub001

even I am not able to access the whole yahoo groups site, and thats what is supposed to happen , so if u are able to access the site, your isp is at fault
Note: accessing site and able to get emails from the group are two different things

i am able to do both

ps:-i like when my isp is at fault in such cases

[FreakazoiD]

Chill guys, the ban's been lifted !!

At least by VSNL....

cheers,

Rohit

[virus @$&%]

Nopes I dun think that the Ban is being lisfted in totality. Guess some ISPs have still not banned the sites.

Although I wonder how VSNL is one of them bcoz its one of the premier ISP and iz sure that Govt. asked it to ban YAhoo groups.

As for being able to access other Yahoo groups... well certainly an impossiblity as Indian ISPs lacks the power to block a certain Yahoo Group... they can either Block the website, or nothing at all :wink:

Guess Iz time for them to upgrade their Systems..

Just hope they lift the ban soon, or upgrade their systems so that I am able to access various CAT related yahoo groups soon

Ciao

[MANSOOR]

does ne one know a proxy server thru which i can log on to yahoo groups?
Proxify and proxyone only display the sign in page do not allow to sign in...