Cambodia blocks Google’s blogging service

A prominent, anonymous blogger reported today that a Cambodian Internet Service Provider has started blocking Google’s Blogger.

It’s yet unclear whether more ISPs will follow this critical step taken by teleSURF, one of the earliest broadband service providers.

‘Details are Sketchy’ wrote: “Access to blogger.com and blogspot.com appear to be restricted by at least one ISP (hi Telesurf). Both of these sites have been unavailable for several days. Requests to these servers time out.”

Until now there is no mutual agreement and mechanism to censor any Internet sites, although the Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications has commented recently on a planned blocking policy that will crack down on anti-government websites and obscene content.

One of Cambodia’s most visited blogs (ki-media.blogspot.com), online since 2005, has been a hub of news articles and discussions of sensitive issues about Cambodia. Its owner(s) remain(s) anonymous, in the hope of avoiding self-censorship and legal action that may be taken by registered newspapers.

Herdict, a project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, provides a useful tool to keep track of the accessibility of websites.

In 2003, giant search engine Google acquired Blogger from Pyra Labs, a company co-founded by Evan Williams. The American entrepreneur is currently with Twitter, the world’s most popular micro blogging site, as a pioneer.

 

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