I have been following the story of whether or not India would censor Orkut, and it appears that India has taken a baby step away from freedom of expression.
Abdul Qabiz confirms this on his weblog:
I am not able to access orkut.com, it seems it has been banned in Maharastra (the state I stay) or entire India? [...]
I can understand the government's concern about different hate-communities on orkut but I am wondering, why can't Indian government give a list (URLs) of such communities to ISPs so that selective ban can be done instead of entire orkut.com.
Since I am not a legal expert (especially regarding Indian affairs) I would have no clue how the nation of a billion people could go about and resolve this via courts.
However, just because the door to Orkut is locked, it does not mean that there is not a key.
Users may be able to access Orkut via proxy sites, such as Math Tunnel (hat tip: Orkut Guide) until this problem is resolved. There are other resources being developed by users as I type, and if anyone knows (or is creating) access points elsewhere, post a few of them here (and spread the word to your friends inside Orkut via email).
Note: It's days like these that I wish an Indian ACLU existed.
Update: Users in Maharastra seem to be able to still access Orkut. It looks like the ban was in discussion, but not actually used (Thanks Rahul D, DK/SarDaar, Ajay D'Souza, and Vivek for the heads up on this).
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