DoT forced us to block sites: ISPs

Three days after the department of telecom got internet service providers to block access to various blogs and websites, the ISP Association of India (ISPAI) said they were being forced on the issue. But DoT officials said internet service providers had not been asked to block entire websites or blogs.

ISPAI Secretary Deepak Maheshwari, however, defended the blocking of complete websites and blogs. "We had advised our members to block web pages and websites from the domain or server level, as per the DoT order. Their action of blocking entire websites was a precautionary measure, as they could not block individual links," he said.

Maheshwari added that despite the access blockade within India, some blogs were still accessible. "We have advised the service providers to block only the particular sub-domain," he said.

Of the 17 websites, ISPs were able to block 12 webpages at domain levels. However, they were unable to block the www.hinduhumanrights.org/hindufocus.html at the domain level and ended up blocking the whole website.

The website contained four pages of objectionable literature against the government and only those should have been blocked at the subdomain level, the ISPAI official said.

The blocking of www.princesskimberley.blogspot.com was questioned by some users at the Wall Street Journal in the US, as the site did not contain anything objectionable.

"Another website - hinduunity.org - was blocked as it contained material against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi," a source said.