This post is the second part – continued from the previous post: Blocked sites in Nepal – Analysis of first 10 websites in the list

“… stupidity rules in Nepal …”

… why is our government so worried about P-rn-Watchers’-pillars-of-the-nation? How about minding their own business & drafting Constitution on time?

Those were some of the responses to the ‘internet black list,’ the Nepal government prepared, with so much enthusiasm and dedication! In the previous post, I had given enough examples on what ‘the list’ was made up of. The six out of the first ten websites were no-brainier bull-sh*ts !

Let’s go through the remaining list:

Site No. 12 – This website features some magazine but, I couldn’t find any graphic materials in there. I didn’t bother to read  the content (and, I am more than confident that none of the decision makers of the list did read it!). The only apparent reason, the site falls in the list is that there is a taboo word in the title.

Website No. 13 – This site is another victim of taboo word in the title. If you have never heard of some government banning a dictionary – this might be the one and only one in the world! Evan a kid knows, by the very first look, the site is some sort of dictionary. I think the terms and expressions, quotes, and synonyms don’t qualify the site to be banned.

Site No. 15 – This is only a page and not a whole site. The screentours website is not even remotely sexy. I don’t see any logic on the choice of this page – how come they get into that particular page in the first place?

Site No. 16 – Have you heard of a book by the popular singer Madonna ? The page in the 16th number on the ban-list features pages from that book titled ‘SEX’. Again, I don’t know how they reached to that page – a stark copyright infringement of the book! I have never heard of that book ever being banned in Nepal. If the book is not banned, why is a page is banned? And, even more surprising – only the thumbnail page is blocked. The full size images can be accessed without problem!

Site No – 17 – By the name of this website, I thought this is a genuine candidate to be banned according to the Nepal Government definition. But, I was wrong. When I clicked on the links – the resulting pages featured YouTube videos! There is no need of censoring YouTube videos, Google is pretty good at doing the job of censoring.

Parked Domains – At lease four websites, in the ban-list of 56 websites, were no sites at all! They were ‘parked’ to sell. Banning a parked website doesn’t make sense at all. It is clear, they managed to get in the list for a mere reason that there is ‘sex’ somewhere in the domain name.

Agreed, our government is out of touch of the technology world, but why is the mainstream media ignoring such a stupidity in the government’s part?

I guess, Indu Nepal of Nepali Times has nailed the reason:

In the mainstream newspapers, there seems to be an unwillingness to challenge the wisdom of the ban, perhaps because talking about sex or images of sex openly isn’t very becoming in Nepal. This ban, however, isn’t just about p0rn but what could come after.

Selected and related previous posts (repeating them again!):

• 5 reasons why the government plan won’t succeed
• Government announced the ban
• The government should have blocked access to temples for indecent carvings on temple tundal
• ID requirement in Cyber Cafe – will it work?
• Govt. blocked VOIP sites
• Gmail offered free calls to the US and Canada and they couldn’t block it.
• After two months of ban, still collecting opinion
• 60 P0rn sites blocked in Nepal
• First batch of website list blocked in Nepal
• Second updated list (with 56 websites)
• The reason I wanted xnepali.com to be included in the ban-list
• Analysis of first 10 websites in the ban-list