Apparently it's not only the US that overreacts to terrorism. This morning, the entire country of India starting blocking all Geocities, TypePad, and BlogSpot websites in entirety. The reasons being given is that terrorists communicate via blogs.
Wow. I don't think I should need to say that this is terribly stupid and overwrought. To say that blocking all traffic on this sites will make India safer from terrorism is just silly.
One, the methods used to disseminate information from blogs is too diverse. One can read blogs via Technorati, or Bloglines, and so on. Two, terrorists would still be able to communicate via emails, SMS, and the like. But third, and most importantly, consider how much good blogs too, especially for the people of India that are living overseas. Blogs are an important way for people working abroad to keep in touch with family and vice versa. Bloggers commented on the terrorist attack in Mumbai and continue to break news stories about it (including this overreaction). It's amazing to me that India (Bharat) would seek to join the most repressive nations on Earth, like the Muslim nations in the Gulf or North Korea and China and start filtering IP traffic in the country.
It's ridiculous. All the more so because part of India's economic rebirth has been because of the power of the web and it continues to operate as the "world's back office".
I'm just amazed. I never thought I'd see India do something like this, especially in the face of a bombing, which India has experienced before.
Other bloggers who have more to say on this issue, including ways to circumvent the filtering:
http://indiauncut.blogspot.com/
http://radio.weblogs.com/0121664/
http://www.ultrabrown.com/posts/india-censors-blogspot
http://www.shivamvij.com/2006/07/somebody-must-have-blocked-some-sites-what-is-your-problem.html
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/07/blogspot-blogs-banned-in-india-read.html
http://www.gonomad.com/traveltalesfromindia/2006/07/what-is-up-with-blogspot-blogger-sites.html
http://www.withinandwithout.com/?p=854
The best thing we can do in the US is to run TOR, a router that anonymizes internet traffic and makes it possible for clients to browse filtered websites. TOR is provided by the EFF and can be downloaded here.
