The government attacks our right to privacy. The government attacks our right to watch what we want to watch. The government tries to change history by purging facts from textbooks and now the government attacks our right to store and archive. In a move that is akin to "locking up a library", as a Twitter user rightly pointed out, on August 8, the government has blocked the Internet Archive (web.archive.org), a free online digital library that allows people to find archived versions of millions of webpages through the Wayback Machine.

The Internet Archive has been stashing away yesterday's web for more than two decades and has preserved “billions of webpages from millions of websites”. The Archive is a San Francisco–based non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". In addition to its archiving function, the Archive is also an activist organisation, advocating for a free and open internet.

Over the years, the Archive has saved more than 510 billion documents, images, videos, style sheets, scripts and other time-stamped web objects. The site allows users to archive webpages, access archived webpages for free, and also hosts a spectacularly varied amount of free content, including music which is out of copyright, as welll as movies, videos, software etc taking up 15 petabytes of storage.

According to Medianama, who first broke the news, the block isn’t fully functional as of yet, and the website is unavailable on select internet service providers. When one tries to access the website, they receive the following 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.”

Photo: Screengrab

Based on feedback from Twitter users, the report also adds that the site is blocked on Airtel vfiber in Noida, Airtel Broadband in Bangalore, Tikona Mumbai, BSNL FTTH in Pune, Connect Broadband in Mohali, Hathway Mumbai, Airtel Broadband Gurgaon, Airtel 4G Odisha, BSNL Trichy, MTNL Mumbai, BSNL Hyderabad, BSNL Trivandrum, Jio Chennai, among others.

Why block a library?

The motive behind this block is unclear at this point. According to a report in NDTV Gadgets 360, a spokesperson for Internet Archive said government of India did not issue them any advisory or communication regarding the block.

"We have no information about why a block would have been implemented... multiple attempts to contact the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) – DeitY was the agency that ultimately ended up responding to us regarding the previous block – have gone unanswered thus far (we first tried to reach out to them about 22 hours ago)," said the spokesperson. “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,” they added.

Governments have been known to act in an authoritarian manner, especially when it comes to the internet. Anything perceived as a threat to the government’s ideologies or image is attacked and wholehearted efforts are made to suppress it. In fact, attacking internet freedom has become more than commonplace in India under the BJP rule.

Spread fake news ✅Change history books ✅Discredit critics ✅Fudge data ✅Block Internet Archive: IN PROGRESShttps://t.co/VYppRE6ngu — Meghnad (@Memeghnad) August 8, 2017

How many of you know that @internetarchive is used by many researchers who can't afford to pay thousands of dollars for accessing knowledge? — Srinivas Kodali (@iotakodali) August 9, 2017

Meanwhile govt blocked https://t.co/kyHVNQblRj Presumably trying to scrub all Modi's 2014 promises from the net https://t.co/PW0ysXe82v — Mihir Sharma (@mihirssharma) August 8, 2017

Hi @rsprasad @manojsinhabjp Pls order unblocking of Internet Archive (https://t.co/deCo0hVdCY)&explain why it was blocked in the first place — Nikhil Pahwa (@nixxin) August 9, 2017

https://t.co/cga5LRT5gB has been blocked. It's the lifeline of acads world over. India are you mad? https://t.co/nI3KAJ7nkj — Ruchika Sharma (@tishasaroyan) August 8, 2017

An ongoing study conducted by the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC), which provides pro bono legal representation and related services to not-for-profit developers of free software/open source software, found that India has seen 29 instances of internet shutdown in the first seven months of 2017 — all in the name of preserving law and order.

Advocates of privacy (and thus naturally the nemesis of Aadhaar) have reported for quite some time now about a kind of organised attack on them on social media.

What is curious is a remark made by Nikhil Pahwa – founder of Medianama – on the government’s possible motives here. He says, “Note that several UIDAI related documents, which have been otherwise removed from their website, are accessible on the Internet Archive.” Is it possible that this block is just another weapon in the continuous battle the State is fighting against activists who want privacy and advocate freedom on the internet?

Aseem Manchanda, a journalist from CNBC Awaaz, however, claims to know why the site was blocked. Manchanda tweeted, "Archive.org is banned on the Madras High Court [order]. Ban because Jab Harry Met Sejal producer has alleged it has hosted film illegally."

https://t.co/R5T1kieWWg is banned on the Madras High court.Ban because JHMS producer has alleged it has hosted film illegally. @CNBC_Awaaz — Aseem Manchanda (@aseemmanchanda) August 9, 2017

If that is, in fact, really the reason behind the block, it seems like a gigantic overreaction.

Not the first time

This is also not the first time the Archive has been blocked by the DoT. In 2014, the Indian government had blocked a host of websites — including Internet Archive, Github, Vimeo, Pastebin, and Weebly — because they were supposedly carrying “anti-India” content from ISIL /Islamic State/ISIS.

According to Arvind Gupta, the national head of the information technology cell at the BJP, the websites were blocked because they were allegedly carrying anti-India content and on the advice of India’s anti-terrorism squad.

Photo: DailyO

But is that the case again?

"It seems highly unlikely to me that the Wayback Machine or Archive.org threaten national security or public order in a way that Google's Cache or a well-stocked library don't," Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Centre for Internet and Society, a think tank based in Bangalore, told BuzzFeed News. "The blocking orders the Department of Telecom sends to ISPs are marked 'confidential' rather than being published officially on [the department's] official website."

"This is another reminder of the capricious, arbitrary, and utterly opaque nature of online censorship in India," Prakash added.

How deos the government get away with this?

Even though the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution on July 1, 2016 condemning network disruptions and measures adopted by states to curb online access and/or dissemination of information, Victorian-era laws still followed by India are a big hurdle in the UNHRC’s goal. Section 5(2) of the Telegraph Act of 1885 allows the central or state governments to restrict or interfere with the transmission of messages.

Section 69A of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act of 2008 allows the government to block specific websites and pages in “the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State”.

The Centre's lack of transparency, especially about matters that concern the fundamental rights and liberties of its citizens, is not new. But the ethically ambiguous does have legal sanction. In 2015, the Supreme Court held section 69A as constitutionally valid, saying there are adequate procedural safeguards. There might still be hope though.

According to Supreme Court advocate Karuna Nundy, “The Supreme Court [has] directed the government to give reasons for blocking [the archive].” She also added that “[This is] yet another instance of the government failing to follow rule of law, [and the] onus [is] on citizens to go to court.”

Whatever may be the case, it's important that an internationally avialable and free-for-all asset that is the Internet Archive is restored.

Also read: BJP member Shaina NC shames victim on Twitter and follows it with a lame ‘hacked account’ excuse