India blocks Tribune blog exposing Burma 'Muslim killings'
Ironically, the blog by Faraz Ahmed had exposed how people on Facebook and Twitter were using wrong captions for photos from Southeast Asia to portray that Muslims were being killed by the Burmese government.
Ahmed’s website had also been blocked in India.
The list is mostly dominated by links from Facebook and YouTube.
According to a Times of India report, both Facebook and Google are working with the Indian government to remove illegal content. The Indian government had apparently found 102 URLs on Facebook and 85 URLs on YouTube containing “communally sensitive” content.
According to the website of Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), almost "all of the blocked items have content (images, videos, writings) that are related to communal issues and rioting".
Pranesh Prakash, a CIS official, said that the blocking of many of the URLs was “legally questionable and morally indefensible”.
The list also contains websites that are believed to be sympathetic to Hindu and Muslim radical groups, and some mainstream media websites.
The Indian government had also earlier claimed that false rumors of revenge attacks for violence against Assam Muslims which led to an exodus of people from northwest India were initiated in Pakistan.
Defence.pk hit by DoS attacks after list leak
Defence.pk is also another Pakistani website that was blocked by the Indian government. An administrator of the website informed The Express Tribune that they were facing Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS) since the list had been leaked.
The administrator said that this was the largest attack since the website had been launched, adding that conducting such an attack was a costly affair and that it proved that someone with enough resources was behind it. They added that tracing the sources was not possible unless a high profile agency conducted an international investigation.
The administrator hoped that the Indian government would reconsider the block as they were not doing “anything shady” and were upholding “noble ideals”.
COMMENTS (86)
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1734899716-0/image-(15)1734899716-0-270x192.webp "trade war between us and china round two")
oh i feel really very sad for you ET. indians haven't even cared your very love for india. Express' all media houses are severly pro-indian. This what you guys are getting in reaction from india.
I am also sick of hearing how India is persecuting an 11 year old mentally retarded christian girl for blasphemy. Some hindu women even broke both her arms yesterday. Hindus are killing shias in droves ! I am Pakistani (from Australia) but I hate India for how it treats its minorities in Burma.
sir, so sad to hear all these murders, but showing the picture of natural calamities and pointing to massacre wasnt a fine Idea, Zia ul haq massacred palestinians, so why should pakistan shed crocodile tears and in Bangladesh pakistan nearly killed 3 million bangla desh masses, Why pakistan is not taking bihari muslims back to pakistan , What is Indias Role If some thing Happens in Burma, The problem In burma dates back to a century, What are these bangla deshis doing in Burma, They creep to india and burma illegaly , and have to pay a heavy Prize India is soft so Any thugs can enter and sabotage ,
so ET's love for india is only one way. Have ET ever reported indian atrocities in Kashmir. I hope ET is banned in Pakistan
ET ,you allow to post comment using fake name.This will turn debate uninteresting.
INDIA did worst human abuse and broken all records of human rights in Kashmir most hatred people on earth hypocrite now brutally murdered so many Muslims in Burma hiding it its enough some thing serious should be done before it get too late for every one
INDIA did worst human abuse and broken all records of human rights in Kashmir most hatred people on earth hypocrite now brutally murdered so many Muslims in Burma hiding it its enough some thing serious should be done before it get too late for every one
For one case India now follows Pakistan in blocking websites which doesn't support its religious ideology. Both are pathetic with their strategies!!
Atleast with the single call from Indian Govt. FaceBook, Youtube started to block the specified sites does Pak Govt. has that clut on these agencies?
Poor ET abandoned by your LOVER.....................Pity
I am Ashamed of calling myself an Indian when atrocities are being done in our neighbourhood and we turn our backs, close our eyes, shut our windows and Block the websites, just bcoz it may harm us in some way!!!!
Now I believe the sufferings of the poor will be a huge debt on our shoulders and generations will pay for it.
@ SAB @ Fahad Raza and all right wingers
What makes you feel that every liberal Pakistani is an Indian stooge?
By that standard, all you right wingers are Saudi stooges.
Rights wingers in Pakistan are genetically hypocritical. You support the imperialists and turn against them. You demand equal rights abroad and deny everything to their own minorities.
ET is one of the few that at least highlights the plight of every section of Pakistani society. Not like the some cheap papers that propagate utter gibberish.
@Adeel: They are doing right, it will cause and ignite an ethnic wars.
No matter what you do, India will never be your friend!!! This is what first generation of Pakistanis told us. Many people have learnt it the hardway after so much wasted efforts. . Welcome ET, join that group!
@Lala Gee: "Following Pakistan’s footsteps."
Apparently not. Many people in India have debunked the claim that ET blog is blocked. Of course India is working with facebook and google to block hate speech. It should certainly do that.
For many Pakistani posters, who think that India is being anti-Muslim through these acts : here's some facts. For India the life and security of all Indians of whatever belief system (Hindu, Muslim , Sikh, Christian, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist, Jew, atheist)is more important than Burmese Muslims or illegal Bangladeshis. Using pictures related to Burmese Muslims and trying to pass them off as atrocities on illegal Bangladeshis in India to create hatred for North Eastern Indian citizens is unacceptable.
Please also note that if such violence by a few extremist Muslims as threatened in mass emails had been allowed to occur, the biggest sufferers would have been ordinary Muslims who would have been viewed with suspicion. Indian government's prompt action has saved not just the North East Indians living in South but also Indian Muslims.
By the way when is your government going to step in to protect Punjabi settlers in Balochistan the way Indian government stepped in to protect Indians from North East living in SOuthern India?
Hai Raaam!! Express Tribune Repressed by Hind-Dost-an...
india is the biggest enemy of freedom of speech. and by the way where are all the human rights organisations!!!
@antanu g: Sorry could not understand what you meant? Take out the g from your name please!
@SAB: Ever heard of rude awakening? That is what ha-penned to E.T. Being a self hater come with a price. Others still wont trust you !
read the link properly: they were blocked from 18-21. You are accessing it after that genius!
It's 10.25pm in Mumbai and yes the blog is blocked:
"This site has been blocked as per instructions from Department of Telecom (DOT) ."
both the above mentioned site.. http://www.defence.pk/ and http://farazahmed.com.......are available in india.
Indians don't have the time to worry about Rohingya Muslims, they have enough on their own plate to consider. Saudi Arabia should accept all the Rohingya Muslims as refugees and demonstrate to the world how they take care of Muslims, but we all know that is not going to happen.
This leaves Pakistan, the citadel of Islam to jump into the fray and shoulder this responsibility, but we know all too well that Pakistan can barely feed its own people. So what to do. I say let the Rohingyas figure this one out for themselves.
India, as a Hindu nation need not worry about the Rohingyas, but by blocking websites and censoring questionable and doctored material India shows that it is sensitive to these issues and acted accordingly.
do pakistanis know about what happened in Mumbai on 11th august?? a protest organised by Raza Acadmey ..where they burned vehicles, destroyed property (even amar jawan jyoti google that picture..) and injured many cops.. and what muslims did in southern states.. do u have any idea ?? they circulated sms'es "that once ed is over they will kill all north east indians" and the north eastern scared to hell ran to there regions ..
The amount of freedom muslims get in India is more that what they get even in muslim countries..Shia, Sunnis, Ahmedia etc. all live equally..unlike Pakistan the land of the pures (and we all know what you did and are doing to the left Hindus..)
@Tanveer - Indians are not teaching Pakistan democracy and freedom. It is you who look to it.
I am able to access http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/12867/social-media-is-lying-to-you-about-burmas-muslim-cleansing/ and http://farazahmed.com/
ET is this restriction is only for few selected Indians ??
I can easily smell the "Divide and Rule" policy of Congress here....There are many facebook pages which show these manipulated pictures which are being circulated....
But why have they blocked a blog which advises everyone about the deception and warn others not to believe the rumors and verify before believing it
To all Pakistanis,welcome to COngress dynasty rule of "Divide and loot campaign" where they make sure that India burns and noone has time to question their scams...
No wonder,the largest democracy in the world is still a developing country as we elect this dynasty to power all the time
Sorry folks in Pakistan. I am from India and I am able to access the so called banned sites like many other Indian's posted here. As usual you are spreading rumors and would love to believe them rather than the truth.
Hi All, Though I am totally for freedom of speech, when it comes to us muslims, we are likely to revert to our collective muslim mob behaviour at the slightest chance that we get. We as a group need to be monitored as is being done in most muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE etc and therefore there is nothing wrong in banning a few sites that is showing doctored images especially if it is likely to excite us as was shown by the Muslims in Bombay, Assam, Lucknow and the rest of the world.
Just now, it is 8:04 pm in Karnataka, India, and the blog is working fine!
@Anonymous Indian: hahahahahah...very funny. if such is the largest democracy then what is authoritarianism and totalitarianism? i think with such arguments u have a good chance to join Tories..i mean All India congress
@Awans: pakistani talking about indian economy our population is6 times bigger than ur country but eeconomy is 9 times bigger .we produced 11% of world totalgradudate an ur country only 0.8% and ur country 46% population is illiterate and 60% women are illiterate.
What is wrong with the Pakistani trolling going around here???? The Govt of India has banned spurious websites that portray absolutely false information that would otherwise misguide the people here in India, so I think they have done the right thing.
@Adeel: Just like Pakistan does not want its people to know about Zia ul Haq's mass murder of Palestine people in Sept of 1970 so called Black September or killing of Shia in gilgit or forced conversion of Hindu in Sindh or atrocities in East Pakistan or dealings with the non state actor. Should I continue or you get the picture. Pakistan blocked cell phone during the holiest day of the year in the name of security and peace. Other countries have similar rights to protect peace internally. It takes lot more effort to maintain peace internally than to disturb it.
its the ganhian reaction...expected from the world's largest democracy. the inside story of burmi darama is this why there is sudden hue and cry regarding Burmi Muslims? such issues of valiance were there at Bangladeshi-Burmi border when i visited at 2009. Burmi govt was using Buddhist tribes living at Bangladeshi borders (Chittagong hill tracks) while there were many muslim villages at Burmi side. both countries were using religion extensively. Bangladeshi govt with help of Saudi+Us funding while Burmi govt with Chinese support. jamat e islami and tableghi jamat were engaged in at Bangladesh. now after 2011 settlement situation has been changed. burmi leader is now released and USA accepted Burma status while burmi govt is holding elections. it means after collaboration of US-China that hot point is defused mutually. yet it is not acceptable to Britain who created McMahon line in 1914. neither it is acceptable to US war industry as they are dependent on hot points. nor it is accepted to religious groups in Bangladesh who were gaining huge money . the situation resembles with 1857 revolutionaries in royal Bengal army who had a fear to lost there position as British Indian administration needs military recruitment from areas adjacent to Afghanistan. the situation resembled with post Geneva accord where religious fundamentalist groups lost heavy funding of afghan jihad. so they became anti US or anti imperialist. so after a visible change in Burma, old jihadies r trying to regain old findings. we should expose all these game plans and should not depend on new claims.
@Raja Poras - What truth is being suppressed? Fake killings!!!!!! Indian govt has done the right thing. There is nothing to be ashamed of. You guys want to gain mileage from these fake pictures. You guys are FAKE.
@Adharsh, Indian government has done the right thing by blocking all sites that use fake pictures.
Pak. has many failure but atleast Pak. media is can criticise and discuss freely any one from army to intelligence agencies,from gov. to political parties, from religious conservatives to minorities. We still not able to solve the issues but we as society don't wrapping under the carpet. One day we will definitelly get answers from debate.Noone in Pak. nomore is holy cow.
ET Shouldve been blocked in pakistan first!
India cannot differentiate between friend and foe. ET is India's friend not foe.
Dont you mean Mayanmar?
@Indian Wisdom: I invite you to do protest in mumbai once again.And i m sure this will prove dire situation for you.Govt is just trying to save you and at the same time saving his own face. violence in assam is going on and so in burma.Show some courage . go and stop it.
What can one say when a reputed newspaper like the Express Tribune starts spreading rumor like this one? For there's not a single listed site whose access is denied to me. The government may have blocked some spurious websites and hate pages on facebook (I don't have any problem with that) but there's no censorship on internet here. Facebook, wikipedia, youtube, blogspot, wordpress, twitter all are accessible. Please don't jump the gun. Thanks
India should block all the sites which creates communal divide among its people there is nothing wrong in it. Most of the sites blocked contains inspiration for violence. There are morphed pictures of Chinese earth qake victims in which Budhist monks are standing among the dead bodies which were portrayed as brutal killings of muslims by Bhudist monks. Such sites only helps the radicals not the country
I can't access FarazAhmed.com, what's on this website? anyone?
I feel sorry that Express Tribune is being blamed in most of the comments for its being India-loving. I don't think so. No doubt it has always advocated friendly relations between Pakistan and India and that we as a nation should be obsessed with perpetual enmity with it, this doesn't mean it should be made the butt of a joke. This is one among the rare reasoned voices in a pool of irrationality. We should be proud of it. The ban itself shows that it has no favorites when it comes to telling the truth, and that it welcomes and respects opinion of all shades. And it may be the result of that policy because most of the bloggers just spit venom against India which the Express Tribune allowed on the blog. But instead of being appreciated these same people are now ridiculing it. How surprising! And how shocking it is that nobody is really interested to know why that particular URL of the bolg hosted on ET has been blocked.
I feel ashamed, India is supposed to be a democracy.
We are blessed with Neighbors like India, GOD why these people were not placed on other planet. Recently their were some life Mars , Can you please transfer there to leave with Peace.
Blocking of this block is unfortunate but in a strange way necessary.
Agreed that this blog exposed the lies and propaganda of Muslims over social networking sites about Myanmar atrocities.
However, given the fact that most Muslims in India are either not well versed in English and have an inclination to terrorism and mob mentality, this blockage helps in instigating the poor/illiterate Muslims through ghastly doctored images.
Logically this move is bound to help.
I am pretty sure that people controlling internet in India are not different than the ones sitting in PTA. Blocking sites without bothering to have a look into them.
This is nonsense. For I live in India and I can access all the "blocked" sites mentioned in the article.
India is living on the edge. Multi nation country. Peace can be spoiled by small incidents like this. Its good to Block those sites.
So, Keep promoting them in Pakistan just like Aman ki Lasha.
Hi, What nonsense is this.....all those sites mentioned can be accessed & iam sitting in mumbai. most things that are on line or are circulating is not what is really happening.. these people have taken videos of victims of natural calamities & shown it as muslims being killed in myanmmar... On 11th of august over 50,0000 muslims gathered around mumbai's azad maidan and vandalized the entire city....causing damage of hundreds of crores of rupees ,only because some miscreants in pakistan thought it was fit to spread rumours . you would be surprised with the kind of internet independence indians enjoy as compared to citizens of other countries in asia. Pakistanis are already the most reviled people on earth, look at the facts & accept the truth rather than accusing others ... accept the fact that you are not going to leave a very prosperous pakistan for your children.
So that article was probably EXPOSING the CAMPAIGN of killings in Burma, right? And blocking it means India doesn't want it to be exposed, right? India want the campaign to continue maybe? Or is it just that they didn't read the article, express tribune's name was enough to take action. The love tribune had for India is now broken to pieces. Jag sona soona lagay tribune?
and the indians who usually would troll around at every internal socio-political affair are nowhere to be seen at this statistic =D
This is Hypocrisy !!! Why is the govt. of India so insecure??? Why doesn't it want to come out of the cocoon??? The world has changed and they should be able to wake up..... Above all they don't have even an iota of faith on the intelligence of the Indians!!! I think it is high time that even the government of India should get privatized !!!
Following Pakistan's footsteps.
So what happened to India now when the buck fell on them? Always talking nonsense against Pakistan, telling us how to act and behave? In bad times it is dictatorship that is practised and love of democracy goes out of the window!!! to one of the biggest democracies of the world.
locking the stable after the horse has bolted. That is exactly what India is doing
lol clowns
Sorry Express Tribune. They didn't care much for your love it seems.
@Analyzer: hahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahahahahahahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Why u hope, this is the best pakistani news paper, i love this paper And dear friend please help india , you know things flare up easily in india, pakistan , bangla and afghan , because we are the best idiots in the world ,
World's largest democracy?? hmmmmm
Indian government is more narrow-minded than Pakistan's, huh.
What nonsense! . I just accessed http://farazahmed.com/ and http://www.defence.pk/
This is news? -_-
Great. I hope the Indian government blocks the entire Express Tribune site next.
Good move!
So basically India doesn't want its people to find out about the atrocities against Muslims in Burma. Ostrich. Bury your heads and act as if nothing is wrong.