Multiple service providers are blocking DuckDuckGo in India | Hacker News Reader

Multiple service providers are blocking DuckDuckGo in India

thenextweb.com

151 pointsmehtology42 comments

Gmail, Google Play Store, Google Cloud, Google Drive, and Google Meet also suffered because of the Airtel Issue. DuckDuckGo's blockage could also be because of the same issue.

https://www.91mobiles.com/hub/gmail-play-store-and-other-goo...

This is a vicious cycle actually.

Because there is precedent that the current govt bans everything that critizes them, people get hyper when some glitch happens.

then all the right wingers descend to blame the cynics 'oh they are anti national'

and cynics become worse cynics, 'see they ban everything and then abuse everyone who questions'

> Meanwhile, DuckDuckGo confirmed on Twitter that it’s looking into the issue and suggested Android users change their DNS provider to get around the issue.

If changing DNS works, how is this blocked by the ISP? Seems to indicate there is some other technical problem. Treat the rest of the article, and specially with tweets, with skepticism.

Haven’t been back in India for a while, but the DNS blocking happens all the time. One big provider (AirTel) even injected ads in non-https pages quite frequently.

Anecdotally, I had a cable service in Delhi where the provider started throttling me if I didn’t make any request to their dns server in some arbitrary time interval. So changing your dns might not be the fix (i fixed it by sending random queries to their server...).

> One big provider (AirTel) even injected ads in non-https pages quite frequently.

...and in "HTTPS" pages "secured" by cloudflare. https://medium.com/@karthikb351/airtel-is-sniffing-and-censo...

It would have been nice to have a more proactive response in the original discussion on this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12092188

Denmark does the same thing for illegal gambling sites, sites selling medication illegally and file sharing sites. Basically it's just the courts telling the ISPs that their DNS servers can't resolve certain domains names any more.

Everyone accepts that it's pretty easy to bypass but it's considered "good enough".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_blocking

ISP's DNS, which you use by default, has a blacklist.

You change your DNS, no longer see ISP's blacklist.

IIRC Cloudflare (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1) also support encrypted DNS.

They simply filter out DNS records on their caching DNS server that they provide to their users.

Indian here. Just want to say that Indian Govt. is a piece of sh*t.

They don't understand a literal about technology. They want to protect citizen's privacy but they don't want to promote the thing that provides privacy.

Also, their official websites looks like they will die at any moment.

Banned on ACT Broadband too, now. I get a "PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR" which is the same error given on banned porn and other sites too. I feel like I'm missing a finger, it's been so long since I've regularly had to use any other search engine.

Canada here. I currently cannot load DDG unless I'm connected to a US VPN (haven't tried other countries yet).

Edit: the site is accessible for me again at 14h30, Eastern time.

I am also in Canada and cannot load DDG via my university's vpn, but DDG works fine on my home internet connection.

Canada here too, DDG loads fine via Shaw.

Is there any precedent for this in India (blocking a search engine or other 'utility' website, as opposed to specific content)?

They block websites and URLs all the time. Often times, there won’t be any justification (or even logic) behind the action — they’ve even blocked gist.github.com once.

Plenty. They even blocked github once because (do not laugh) some people used it to share pirated movie links.

India is the worst in the world (since 2014 right wing govt came to power) for internet shut downs. the current government is a ultra right wing majority and they shut down the internet in areas which protest.

then their minions try to drown the voices of dissent online and offline by abusing dissenters or plain beating them up.

then the ultra right wing government arrests those who are beaten up under sedition, act of war against the state, keeps them in jail for 90+ days without filing an FIR and when they are released after 90days according the the law, they're arrested again on trumped up charges!

Looks like a glitch (as the reddit thread indicates). DDG works fine on BSNL.

Note that r/India is very intolerant of views which are pro-India, and has consequently become an echo chamber for endia folk. I'd take anything coming out of this subred with a bucket of salt.

The fact that it works on BSNL means absolutely nothing. The implementation of blocking across ISPs is extremely inconsistent: https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.08590

> Note that r/India is very intolerant of views which are pro-India

/r/india heavily skews liberal and anti-Modi. That is not the same thing as being intolerant of pro-India views.

> /r/india heavily skews liberal and anti-Modi. That is not the same thing as being intolerant of pro-India views.

Oh it is now anti Modi. I remember back in 2014 when every other comment and post was 'wow Modi will transform this country, Mumbai and Delhi will become New York'

I used to get banned just for asking 'how will he get the money to do so?' or for asking proof on past experiences as the PM's CM term of the state of Gujarat wasn't exactly as promising but /r/india had lost their mind worshipping Modi and hating Congress.

They now hate both Congress and BJP :D

> DDG works fine on BSNL

This is the equivalent of 'works on my computer'

> Note that r/India is very intolerant of views which are pro-India

Pray tell me who gave you the authority of deciding who is pro-India and who is anti-India? Were your ancestors among Nehru/Gandhi/Bipin chandra/ other freedom fighters who gave their life for democracy?

Were your ancestors among the brilliant minds who drafted the ideology of this state to become a secular republic and not fall in the dictatorship trap like all ex British colonies except India have fallen into?

Who exactly do you think you are to distribute certificates of nationalism?

Pro-India is not the same as Pro-Modi

It doesn't work for me as well! Not sure whats the reason behind this blocking! For now using bing as DDG uses it in the background!

Working for me on Airtel. I think it's more of a glitch.

I just saw a billboard for it on a 45mph stretch through a medium sized city.

Working fine on my ION broadband, but it's blocked on Jio.

It's working now.

India, ruled by some big(!) heads who doesn't understand a dot in technology. They are governed by impulsive decisions of the policy makers and it's a name sake democracy. No real freedom of speech is allowed there AFAIK. Govt / Private / Policing is just too much and a lot of gag order as well. They just can't stand anything and consequences could cost a life too! Technology is being used by most of the population who doesn't even know what is behind the scenes. ISPs utilise it do whatever they want and there is a ruling body known as TRAI / DOT which doesn't care to explain the rationale behind any of their decisions for blocking / banning etc., God save that country!

> there is a ruling body known as TRAI / DOT which doesn't care to explain the rationale behind any of their decisions for blocking / banning etc.

This is a big misconception in India. The URL blocking for the major part is ordered by courts and not the government - https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/ban-porn-sit...

> The URL blocking for the major part is ordered by courts and not the government

I can't speak to TRAI and DOT involvement, but the statement that courts are not part of the "government" is an over-technical definition centered around Parliamentary technicalities that happen to use the word, and of limited utility here. The courts are very much part of the apparatus which governs the people of a nation.

I see where you are coming from but the distinction is important because a lot of times these discussions are followed up by discussion about voting for certain political parties with suggestions of one political party banning/censoring more than other political parties. If one doesn't focus on the exact points of change where it's possible, complaining against the "big government" is going to be a very slow process to bring change.

Some group presumably passed the laws the court is enforcing? (Unless they're interpretting the constitution to require blocking DDG, I dunno). Seems like you would want to vote against those people if this is your important issue.

Why don't English speakers use the term "state" to talk about the "human community which lays claim to the monopoly on the legitimated use of physical force"? Is it because they want to avoid confusion with states as in "The United States"?

Not all governments are states. Cities may also have governments, for instance, as might informal associations. In this case where it is less important that the actor is a state; it is more important that they are exercising authority and power, setting and enforcing policy.

Therefore, in this case, the term "government" is a better fit than "state".

Courts do function independently of the government. The constitution also confers enormous powers over them, so much that contempt of court is exempt from Freedom of speech.

Agree, bunch of fuckin morons at the top, the Prime Minister is following China's playbook and tries to pass all these so called bans based on his whims and fancies trying to whip up so called "patriotism", trying to divert attention from the rising covid cases.

TRAI does come under RTI. Any instance of them denying a RTI request?

I believe RTI has become dysfunctional in India. That's what the recent news is. Most of the RTI requests are being denied citing national security (!!) or things alike. I'm not sure about it though.

It is rendered dysfunctional. Authorities of RTI have been diluted and funding has been witheld by the current govt which came to power pretending to care for transparency!

Their followers who used to love transparency when opposition was in power are suddenly silent and hate transparency!

and their IT cell is actively sowing disinformation on online forums. You can see the comment history of some folks on this very discussion who are trying to divert attention by saying seemingly stupid things, but they are not stupid, they are brilliantly trying to sabotage questions.

Just checked, works for me on 2 different ISPs. This looks like fake news.

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