The Don’t Block The Blog [1] reported today that access to the popular blogging platform blogspot.com [2], which is owned by Google Inc, has been blocked again in Pakistan:
For about four months (since May, 2007) Google fortunately had changed the IP address of its Blogspot servers. The new IP addresses were not demarcated as prohibited by the censorship filters located at the Pakistan Internet Exchange. Today, for some odd reason, Google has suddenly reverted back to its original IP address, which has been on the block list since March of 2006. This move has resulted in the blocking of all internet traffic to the blogspot.com domain. Millions of blog readers in Pakistan now are unable to read or and interact with any of these websites.
The “Don’t Block The Blog [3]” (DBTB) campaign was launched in response to the blanket ban [4] on the Blogspot.com [2] blogging platform instituted by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) [5] more than a year ago, on 3rd of March 2006.
You can read our previous interview with Omer Alvie [6], the co-fonder of (DBTB), about the blanket ban and the Pakistani campaign to support online freedom of speech.
This flash animation is converted from the Powerpoint Presentation made by Dr Awab Alvi [7] for “The Battle for the Internet. [8]” conference (His presentation can be viewed here [9]-original file .ppt)