India blocks 32 popular websites – including Vimeo, Daily Motion and GitHub
Worrying news from India today as it has emerged that the government there has ordered Internet Service Providers to block 32 major websites – ostensibly because of the threat from ISIS (or ISIL, or Islamic State).
Insane! Govt orders blocking of 32 websites including @internetarchive @vimeo @github @pastebin #censorship #FoEx pic.twitter.com/F75ngSGohJ
— Pranesh Prakash (@pranesh_prakash) December 31, 2014
According to Quartz, the sites are being blocked for “Anti-India” content that had been posted by ISIS supporters – and that only websites that are cooperating with the government and removing the dodgy content is being unblocked.
Whilst everyone thinks that ISIS are dicks, we can’t help but be a little unnerved by the Indian government’s actions in this case. India, unlike say China, has been a functioning pluralistic democracy for decades… and you’d think that freedom of expression might be valued in such a society. In any case, blocking a few websites isn’t going to stop ISIS. Here’s hoping that the decision is reversed soon.
