Government Blocks Twitter Accounts Of Two Journalists

In a laughably misguided attempt to control the online rumour-mongering that’s allegedly fanning the violence in Asssam, the government has 16 Twitter accounts, including two belonging to journalists, blocked. The two are Kanchan Gupta, who was formerly with The Pioneer, and Headlines Today anchor Shiv Aroor. Both have been accused of being right-wing sympathisers.

However the blockade is something of a joke. Their accounts are visible as the pages have been blocked by some Internet Service Providers, not Twitter. This means that if you’re using HTTPS, a protocol that doesn’t show ISPs what users are viewing, you can see the pages. The move is the latest in a series of clumsy attempts by the government to curtail the spread of inflammatory material. On Wednesday, it asked Twitter to remove 28 pages of material on Assam. And last week, cell phone network providers were ordered to limit the number of SMSes users could send to five a day . Twitter users have been poking fun at the block under the trending hashtags #GOIBlocks and #Emergency2012. Aroor joked that the government’s action had blocked his nose too.