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I run a tech company that got randomly blocked in India. There's no way it wasn't some kind of mistake. It's been months and there's no way to find out why and

I run a tech company that got randomly blocked in India. There's no way it wasn't some kind of mistake. It's been months and there's no way to find out why and there's no documented method to resolve the problem. While looking into this, it turns out it happens all the time and many websites have been blocked for years. If you're big enough then maybe you can get unblocked. Or you might just be SOL. Some examples: https://www.alexa.com/ https://www.alexa.com/ has been blocked for over 1 year (https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/b084so/why_alexacom_is_blocked_in_india/ https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/b084so/why_alexacom_...) (wtf?) Trinet.com, an HR tech+services company is blocked in India (wtf?) Adobe-owned behance.net is blocked in India. (why?) reddit.com or parts of it are frequently blocked/unblocked https://thenextweb.com/apps/2019/03/14/isps-are-reportedly-blocking-reddit-in-india/ https://thenextweb.com/apps/2019/03/14/isps-are-reportedly-b... 9gag and collegehumor have been blocked for over 5 years (https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/comedy-websites-colleghumor-and-9gag-tv-are-a-part-of-the-857-websites-to-be-banned-because-of-indecent-content-1029567.html https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/comedy-websites-colleghumor...). At least there's some reason here. Three environmentalist websites were blocked (and eventually unblocked): https://scroll.in/latest/967589/centre-run-agency-blocks-website-of-environmental-collective-after-it-criticises-draft-law https://scroll.in/latest/967589/centre-run-agency-blocks-web... The NYTimes was blocked for a while: https://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/new-york-times-access-restored-in-india-following-outage-in-many-cities-2258619 https://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/new-york-times-access... In 2014, India blocked Github for a while: https://qz.com/india/319866/a-threat-from-isis-prompts-india-to-block-github-and-a-handful-of-other-sites https://qz.com/india/319866/a-threat-from-isis-prompts-india... India is known for filtering websites belonging to NGOs, feminist groups, and others https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-tops-list-of-websites-blocked-its-telcos-filter-the-most-netsweeper-5150620/ https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-tops-list-of-w... As far as I can tell, if there's some random bureaucrat that doesn't like you, your website is going to get blocked. Equally likely, the process is so poor that you might get blocked for no reason at all.

xplune 6y ago
Which ISP are you using? Because alexa.com, trinet.com, behance.net, NYTimes are working for me.
- indiablock 6y ago
  I'm not in India, but as far as I know, at least alexa.com and behance.net were blocked for long periods of time. I think NYTimes got unblocked fairly quickly. Somewhat recent report of Alexa.com being blocked (July 2020): https://twitter.com/anandakrsn/status/1284763939427905536?s=20 https://twitter.com/anandakrsn/status/1284763939427905536?s=... Report of Behance being blocked on Aug, 2020: https://twitter.com/prabhjotjolly/status/1295623006358650880?s=20 https://twitter.com/prabhjotjolly/status/1295623006358650880... As the article explains, the blocking is very inconsistent. The article also links to a github repo with some of the blocked hostnames they recently detected: https://github.com/kush789/How-India-Censors-The-Web-Data/blob/master/potentially_blocked_unique_hostnames.txt https://github.com/kush789/How-India-Censors-The-Web-Data/bl... You can see that the list includes alexa.com and behance. It also includes lots of others like craigslist.co.in, ABC.net.au, bleacherreport.com. From personal experience, I know that these are just a tiny subset of legitimate websites that have been blocked (and perhaps later unblocked) for seemingly no reason and have no clear recourse.
- gnaman 6y ago
  behance was definitely blocked for the longest time. I had Jio and Airtel both and I had tried them. Things have changed now because of the uproar.
sbmthakur 6y ago
Alexa, Behance and Trinet are accessible to me on Jio's network. Do you have a better source for this? r/India is not a reliable source.
- boruto 6y ago
  r/India has extremely cynical view of current administration. I was a leftist, That sub-reddit is extreme left.
boruto 6y ago
All three are accessible to me from ACT broadband in tier-3 city. Also work from a VPN on AWS bombay.
- hawkoy 6y ago
  The blocks varies a lot. Broadband from the same companies will not block many sites that are blocked on their mobile networks. It depends on location as well as few other less controlled factors. Source: I have broadband connection and sim from the same telecom and have noticed same issues in distant family houses.

xplune 6y ago

Which ISP are you using? Because alexa.com, trinet.com, behance.net, NYTimes are working for me.

indiablock 6y ago
I'm not in India, but as far as I know, at least alexa.com and behance.net were blocked for long periods of time. I think NYTimes got unblocked fairly quickly. Somewhat recent report of Alexa.com being blocked (July 2020): https://twitter.com/anandakrsn/status/1284763939427905536?s=20 https://twitter.com/anandakrsn/status/1284763939427905536?s=... Report of Behance being blocked on Aug, 2020: https://twitter.com/prabhjotjolly/status/1295623006358650880?s=20 https://twitter.com/prabhjotjolly/status/1295623006358650880... As the article explains, the blocking is very inconsistent. The article also links to a github repo with some of the blocked hostnames they recently detected: https://github.com/kush789/How-India-Censors-The-Web-Data/blob/master/potentially_blocked_unique_hostnames.txt https://github.com/kush789/How-India-Censors-The-Web-Data/bl... You can see that the list includes alexa.com and behance. It also includes lots of others like craigslist.co.in, ABC.net.au, bleacherreport.com. From personal experience, I know that these are just a tiny subset of legitimate websites that have been blocked (and perhaps later unblocked) for seemingly no reason and have no clear recourse.
gnaman 6y ago
behance was definitely blocked for the longest time. I had Jio and Airtel both and I had tried them. Things have changed now because of the uproar.

sbmthakur 6y ago

Alexa, Behance and Trinet are accessible to me on Jio's network. Do you have a better source for this? r/India is not a reliable source.

boruto 6y ago
r/India has extremely cynical view of current administration. I was a leftist, That sub-reddit is extreme left.

boruto 6y ago

All three are accessible to me from ACT broadband in tier-3 city. Also work from a VPN on AWS bombay.

hawkoy 6y ago
The blocks varies a lot. Broadband from the same companies will not block many sites that are blocked on their mobile networks. It depends on location as well as few other less controlled factors. Source: I have broadband connection and sim from the same telecom and have noticed same issues in distant family houses.