India Blocks The Internet Archive Wayback Machine

Fact checked
Wayback Machine

The Wayback Machine by the Internet Archive has been blocked in India to stop online piracy.

The High Court of Judicature at Madras has ordered internet providers to block the hugely popular internet tool, that digitally archives the World Wide Web and safeguards web pages from being lost forever.

The court ruling was sought by two Bollywood production companies, attempting to stop pirated copies of their films from being viewed online.

The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web and other information on the Internet created by the Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library offering free universal access to books, movies & music, as well as 304 billion archived web pages.

By Caleb Chen:

India has a long history of blocking sites that are not illegal. Previous targets for internet service provider (ISP) level blocking include WordPress and Github.

Additionally, in certain regions such as Jammu and Kashmir, the government has taken to completely shutting off internet and mobile access for weeks at a time. Other times, only social media sites are blocked. It’s worth noting that an Indian judge has clarified in a ruling last year that finding your way to an accessibly version of an officially blocked site isn’t illegal.

Currently, visiting the Internet Archive shows this message:

“Your requested URL has been blocked as per the directions received from the Department of Telecommunications, Government of India. Please contact administrator for more information.”

Why is the Internet Archive blocked in India?

According to BBC sources, the block on the Internet Archive comes from anti-piracy lawsuits in Bollywood brought about by Prakash Jha Productions and Red Chillies Entertainment. The Internet Archive was snuck into a list of 2,560 sites for the government censors to block. Notably, India was one of over a dozen countries that voted against a UN resolution declaring internet access a basic human right.

Currently, affected Indian internet users can access the Wayback Machine by navigating to the https site, or using a VPN. The fact that a website like this can be blocked by authorities without any thought of the consequence simply showcases the key issues with a centralized internet. The Internet Archive confirmed that the Indian government had not contacted them or given them any reason for the block.

Chris Butler of the Internet Archive told Fortune:

“Obviously, we are disappointed and concerned by this situation and are very eager to understand why it’s happening and see full access restored to archive.org.”

Wayback Machine

See Also: CERN Deploys AI Cybersecurity To Guard Against Hackers

3 Comments

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  2. well I went to the wayback machine page… don’t waste your time peeps…nothing to see there folks.. much ado about nothing.. more silliness… there is nothing actually there… ok maybe somebody saved some pages.. but for what purpose… its like finding a needle in a haystack…the chances of you finding some obscure long lost website from say for example.. 2003….are ummm zero… what a stupid website.. just shows how much spare time some stupid humans have on their hands..you stupid stupid stupid humans… lololol

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