India has said a block on Internet access to personal blog sites is a "technological error" the government is working to repair. An official at the Consulate General of India in New York said the Indian government had ordered blocks on some Web sites because of "two impertinent pages" that included "extremely derogatory references to Islam." The official said the subsequent blocking of thousands of blogs, including all blogs on popular blogspot.com, was accidental.. The official said the block was an effort to prevent outbreaks of sectarian violence over the offensive materials.
"Because of a technological error, the Internet providers went beyond what was expected of them which in turn resulted in the unfortunate blocking of all blogs," the official said.
Delhi-based blogger Nilanjana Roy, who runs literary blog kitabkhana.blogspot.com, said the blockade is "a dangerous precedent."
"You have a right to know what is being banned, and why it's being banned. I can understand if it's China or Iran or Saudi Arabia. I'm truly appalled when it's my country doing this."
Bloggers in India are getting together to protest against the sudden blocking of popular Google-owned blog-hosting site Blogger by some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Spectranet, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Reliance Powersurfer, Airtel Broadband and Sify.
On July 15, Mridula Dwivedi, a teacher of management studies in Gurgaon first discovered that visiting any blogspot blog -- such as, say Mumbai Help -- returned the message, 'Site Blocked!' Her ISP, Spectranet, confirmed they had blocked some sites based on government directives.