An Interview With Anonymous India - Part 3 - Their Views on Indians and Their Planned Protests

Hello everyone. This is the 3rd and the last part of my interview with Anonymous India - #OpIndia. In this part, I got to know their entry in India, the support they are receiving, about people of India and their plans of 9th June protests across major cities of India.

Part 1 of the interview is here.
Part 2 of the interview is here.

How do you stay in touch with people?

Anon 1 : IRC and twitter.

Do you think the support Anonymous India has got is colder than Anonymous has got globally? People don’t seem to know much about you.

Anon 1 : We were not known anywhere. To people who say - India is not america, many dont use internet here. We say -> Try to find out how many use internet in egypt and see what we could do there.

According to most people's knowledge, Anonymous is just a group of "pimple-faced" hacker kids, who do it for the "lulz". Do you agree?

Anon 1 : No

Anon 4 : Kid ! I wish I was a kid :P

Anon 1 : Majority know us as a group, which is wrong. But the rest is medias creation Many people have been scared of us, but now it is changing as they learn what we really are and what we do.

Anonymous has been seen as a revolution all around the world. Is the response in India the same?

Anon 1 : We have not (been) there , but in each new person who reach us, we can see that burning flame in their words, in their hearts and in their actions.

Anon 4 : Actually, #OpIndia is a bit late. There is already a very effective anonymous. And they don't hack. Have you heard about RTI Anonymous? RTI is the way of getting information from the government. Now as you know a lot of killings of the people who used RTI happened, what these kids from IIT Kharaghpur did that they asked people to give them the RTI queries, and they themselves file it under RTI Anonymous and then pass on the information to the people who wanted it. Thus giving a layer of abstraction and saving lives of RTI activists. And I tell you, a LOT of government people have lost their jobs by them.

Anon 1 : "An epidemic starts in a small proportion .. once its roots dig in .. it spreads like a madness and sweeps everything under its shadows .. similarly Opindia has just started .. patience will lead to wonders".

Anon 4 : The idea of Anonymous would spread for sure.

Anon 1 : A revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories.

Anon 1 : When people come here we tell them this is a dangerous game, but they tell we dont care most of the time. That shows the fire that is starting.

I have heard plans of 9th June protests in some major Indian cities. Are you getting support? And is the support enough?

Anon 1 : Yes. As of now Delhi seems to be leading with some 200+ votes, but that is just the beginning. Once something is sparked of this form, it will catch the hearts. Then there is no turning back. Looking for "us" in numbers is a weak way to judge our strength .. we could gather as 5 or as 5000 but that isnt crucial, what matters is that we dont follow like silent sheep, we think for ourselves and we wont let anyone think for us.

Anon 4 : We all know how IAC started ... don't we ... though it is not our role model.

Me : IAC?

Anon 4 : The 2011 revolution by 'India Against Corruption'

I think Indians gather on streets when its not needed (for example cricket world cup or IPL win). But when they actually need to gather on street, they don't. What's wrong with them according to you?

Anon 4 : Dude, Indians do come to the streets. They are angry and they are desperate to fix things. If Indians understand what is happening to them and how it can be fixed, you knwo what happens. 500,000 Indians marched in Mumbai last year, remember? It was a 5KM long rally .. against corruption.

The "Occupy" movement has seen huge success in USA and other countries. Thousands of people protested peacefully on streets. Do you think that could ever happen India?

Anon 1 : Yes it will

Anon 4 : I think more than that has already happened in India last year. And it will happen again

Anon 1 : There isnt anything wrong with indians when it comes to mass gathering. It is the moral policing that makes us think otherwise .. tell him how fucked up it is that we need to beg for police permission to protest our rights being openly raped .. but how easy it for a wedding procession to block and jam roads at any instance in the city

Now I was reaching towards finish.

Do you know about Sabu?

Anon 4 : ? Chacha Chaudhary one?

Anon 1 : Yes I do.

Anon 4 : I don't.

Anon 1 : What you wanna know about the traitor?

How would you be able to sniff out a traitor?

Anon 1 : We cant. Though we have technical means to identify them.

Anon 4 : Why do traitors need us? We have our strict guidelines, we won't go out of it

Anon 1 : But the rule is simple - stay anonymous. We ask them not to even give us their personal details

I am not sure if Anon 1 or Anon 4 said this : We aren't doing what we do for our personal gains .,. we are doing it for the betterment of society .. we let people join us or leave us ,, if someone wants to stab us in the back .. so be it ,, it wont stop us from fighting for ours and others rights .. BUT we wont go easy on a traitor if we find him.

Do you know about Topiary and Jeremy Hammond?

Anon 1: Yes. They gave away too much information and got social engineered.

Related - Part 1 of this interview is here.
Related - Part 2 of the interview is here.

Now my questions were finished and I was about to leave.

Me :  I think I should end here.

Anon 1 : :D

While I am about to leave, Anon 2 comes in and ask if he/she should deface right now or wait.

Anon 2 : Should I deface now or in 2 hours? Lol.

At first I didn’t understand what Anon 2 was talking about, so I said to continue.

Me : You should right now lol.

Anon 2 : Ok, I will. Stay a little longer for the deface!

Me : What deface?

Anon 2 : Of aitmc.org. Re defacement.

Then Anon 2 defaces the All India Trinamool Conress website and gives the link. I visit it. I see www.aitmc.org home page is defaced and is replaced with a message from Anonymous India.

Everyone cheers it up in the press room as well as their other rooms.

Anon 2 : http://aitmc.org. Defaced, Again. You should be happy, I think you're the only reporter who has been here when we have defaced a site.

Me : Yup i am. I am thinking of throwing a cocktail party ;p

Anon 2 : P*

Then Anon 1 asks me a question.

Anon 1 : Bro, can i ask a question?

Me : Yeah sure

Anon 1 : Who elects our leaders?

Me : We, the people.

Then Anon 6 joins us in and continues the question.

Anon 6 : I’ll carry on the question for bit. If that's okay with you ?

Me : Okay, just getting dizzy a bit (it was 01:15 at night).

Anon 6 : The question is posed as : who elects our leaders? We do right? For what purpose? To serve our needs, protect us etc? We give them power to rule us. So what gives them the belief that they can drown our voices? That they can shut us up, snatch our rights and expect us to keep quiet?

Me : I think its we the people, we don't oppose.

Anon 6 : Exactly why the birth of Anonymous. To oppose, but not be pin pointed and targeted later or attacked by vicious methods and be made to keep quiet .

Me : Okay. I hope you all succeed in the favor of free internet, and free speech.

I finish my interview wishing them best of luck and they finish by saying “JAI HIND”.

Okay so this is it. I finish my interview here. This was the third and the last part. I hope it has been informative to you and I hope I could get more interviews like this in future.

Part 1 of the interview is here.
Part 2 of the interview is here.

If you like this interview, please take a minute to share it, and post comments. Will be back with more articles.

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An Interview With Anonymous India - Part 2 - Their Views on Government, Censorship and Its Impact

Hello everyone. This is the second part of my interview with Anonymous India - #OpIndia. In this part, I continue with questions about Government and its policies, why they think the Government want control over the Internet and how the Government's policies would affect you and the internet.

Part 1 of the interview is here.
Part 3 of the interview is here.

The Interview with Anonymous India - Part 2.

Do you think the Indian Government wants to curb piracy? Government has not been involved in blocking the file sharing sites at least. It was a production company who got the orders.

Anon 1 : We do not support piracy but what we know is government’s concern is not piracy, it is control over the web.

Do you think Indian ISPs have acted amaturely by blocking the whole websites? Aren't they lazy to find particular links and block them?

Anon 1 : It is just as we told. You know what, youtube is hosting sex scandal videos of MPs it can be easily taken down, but not if torrent is used. This is the actual agenda behind all this. Corporations support government, and it supports back. No one cares about the people. But they forget that they are just the 1% and cant control the 99% once they are awake.

Anon 4 : A lot has been shared on facebook and twitter about the top politicians, which never comes to mainstream media. Kapil Sibal showed the *same* thing to Internet company's executives. And asked "How can you have such things" !

Anon 1 : In a democratic governments all decisions and all talks are to be videotaped and released to public then and there

Anon 4 : Democracy works well only when the public is well aware and not ignorant. Controlling messages, news, truth will kill democracy. Democracy dies when news channels become propaganda channels. And there is no passage for the truth. Which right now is Internet.

The Indian Government is more involved in blocking websites that hurts peoples' "sentiments". They want to bring down every voice that is against their wishes. How would you define this?

Anon 1 : Childish. As i told, information is like  - take what you want ignore the rest. System dont expect to make it be only what you like.

Anon 4 : Like they slapped Rs 100 Crore fine on Times Group?

Anon 4 : One thing, things that are not genuine and (are) fake, can't survive on social media. Social Media is the fastest self correcting medium. And second, all websites have self correcting mechanism where you can remove a certain content which hurts sentiments

Anon 1 : See can i ask. Lets say I hear a content ABC is hurtful to me, so I spend 10 mins downloading ABC, then watching it, and getting hurt? Then i need to be thrown in an asylum very soon. if you dont like it keep away from it.

Anon 4 : Funny thing is, not a single porn site has been banned yet.

Do you think the Government have any right to pull down someone from the internet because they think the content is "inappropriate" in one or other way for its citizens?

Anon 1 : NO they dont. Because government may think it is bad, but the people may not. People can take that decision online. They can press a button and that content (is gone) for ever from their eyesight. Sites have intelligent systems to keep what you dont like away.

Governments don't own the Internet. The why do you think, they are acting as if they did? Why they want control over the Internet?

Anon 4 : Let us get it straight. Government doesn't want to control the internet. Certain individuals in government want to control Internet. For their own purpose. Along with rich corporate people.

Me : By certain individuals you mean?

Anon 4 : Certain individuals who want to keep power and money in their control.

Anon 1 : It is like having the future mass media under their control, The parties can use it as they like to preach what they want. Without internet people will believe what the other media tell them, which are under gov control.

Anon 4 : Again, it is like hacking human brain. Brain wash it, using your own propaganda. Don't let the truth come to it. I will give you an example. how it can hurt India badly. You know a CAG report came in 2011, it told that Indian defences are too weak. Government controlled this news, people hardly came to know about it. People always thought they were secure. Later it was found that Indian defences are in a real poor shape. Now, this was a news, which should have been on front page for days. Isn't this anti-national? Isn't this treason ?

Anon 1 : Gov want to keep people ignorant. Here is a question, Law to protect copyright and help censor internet is made in days and passed with full support of every party. Things like poverty removal, infrastructure development etc never see and end from the red tape. Why is that so? Because the other laws wont help them get more power or make more money.

Related - Part 1 of this interview is here.
Related - Part 3 of the interview is here.

While out interview is going on, Anon 5 joins us again.

Anon 5 : Still interview is going on :o lulzz

I invite Anon 5 to the interview too.

Me : It would be good if you join in too.

Anon 5 : Go on man.. I am just too bored now.

Anon 5 seems like leaving and we continue.

Anon 4 : You can understand how people in power are scared of free information. Do you know the number of RTI activists murdered? Do you know the number of whistleblowers murdered?

Me : Not the exact no but a lot.

Anon 4 : Doesn't that scare you? These people are 'that' petrified by free information.

Me : of course it does, and that’s why no one will stand up for truth.

Anon 1 : This control will also will help remove threats like Wikileaks to the corrupt guys. The worst case is that it was proven that every perty and every politician was corrupt, and yet people expect them to make laws that will prevent corruption. Is that not a rubbish idea?

Anon 4 : Right now the penetration of internet is like 6% in India. Still, we have had episodes like Abhishek Singhvi, Patil's home etc. Imagine, what would be the case when penetration is 50%. People in power would lose control. So they want to control Internet NOW

Even USA, UK, Canada and other countries want to fight piracy and there has been attempts to create laws like SOPA, ACTA, and CISPA. But these countries never block someone's personal blog, where he may be putting his own views which may not match with the Government's. Then why Indian Govt is after it?

Anon 1 : Yes, that is what shocked us the most. They only hit big media groups, not individuals. The truth is Indian gov thinks, Indian people are IDIOTS. But time to change that and what is why we are acting the people to wake up.

Anon 4 : They know that biggies won't touch them. But small people would.

Do you think Indian Government is feeling insecure?

Anon 1 : Yes, so is many other governments. In reality governments dont have to fear. Because governments would be with the people. It is the ruling elite class that has to fear. It is the corporations and their slave politicians who have thing to lose and too bad they will too.

Anon 4 : Internet is going to change power flows.

The Indian media is not giving the censorship issue (much needed) proper attention. What do you do to get more and more people know about it?

Anon 1 : If they had fought the way we are doing when they were being censored, India would be a world power today and will be the best and the most loved nation for its good people. The world loves India, we all do. But it is this cancer within India that had been killing it. Time to rise up India.

Okay this is the end of Part 2. If you like this interview, please take a minute to share it. Also post comments if you like/dislike this interview.

Part 1 of the interview is here.
Part 3 of the interview is here.

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An Interview With Anonymous India - Part 1 - What is Anonymous? What Are They Fighting For? And Why?

Hello everyone. As you may know, I am a free speech supporter and I am a good observer. Since last year, I am following updates from Anonymous - A hactivist group of individuals from all over the world. Anonymous has become famous for their hactivism by opposing censorship and favoring free speech. Anonymous has been a part of many peaceful protests globally. And now the ideology of Anonymous is spreading in India too. I took an interview of Anonymous India last night to get more, and true - not misleading information about them. It was a three hours(!) long interview and it was worth it. Here I present my Interview in three parts. Below is the preface, you can skip to interview directly bellow.

Part 2 of the interview is here.
Part 3 of the interview is here.

Preface :
A few weeks ago, Indian ISPs started blocking a number of websites – most of them piracy related. ISPs were asked to block specific URLs that pointed to a number of movies so that their piracy can be stopped. But ISPs went a step further and blocked the whole websites.

Now this has got attention of Anonymous. Being a supporter of free speech and free internet, they started their operations in India called - #OpIndia. They have attacked a number of websites – most of which are Government websites, in protest. Though most of these “attacks” were not intended to cause permanent damage at all. Anonymous wants the blocked sites to be unblocked and want to let the people of India know that censorship is not something that could be tolerated. They want that people of India rise up and get involved in fight against censorship.

While most of the people take Anonymous as “bad guys”, it would be surprising to know that they did not affect any website permanently and fatally (like deleting the database, stealing user information etc). Anonymous want their message to be spread via this as the Indian media is (strangely) not paying attention on issues like censorship. There are mainly false, misleading and incomplete articles and information about Anonymous in India. It would be good to know that they have a strict policy of not to target education and media related websites. They also don't want to attack public interest sites as they don't want them to suffer.

To spread out the truth, Anonymous India have started a special chat room, where the people from media can join in and interview them. So the misleading info could be stopped.

I have been in #OpIndia rooms since a few days, observing them. I have also seen some of interviews taking place, which are not by the mainstream media, but by the bloggers and free lancers mainly. Yesterday night – at about 10:30, I joined in #OpIndia and asked about an interview. I introduced myself and gave my blog link, and one of the "anon" told me that he/she knew of my blog! And without much a-do, they decided who will handle the interview and we were in the "press room" next moment, ready for the interview.

My aim for the interview was to get as much information about them and their operation as I could. My aim was not to get to know them personally and I had prepared a list of questions before joining in. I was more interested in knowing what are their views on various topics. I am satisfied with the interview and through this interview, I came to know them much better. All of them knows why they are doing what they are doing. They have knowledge of the situations and they love India. They are not a bunch of kids whose only goal is to spread mayhem. Here I present my interview with Anonymous India, #OpIndia. I hope I could present it well as I thought it to be.

The interview with Anonymous India - #OpIndia - Part 1.

We will be knowing each member by Anon 1, 2, 3 etc. This is the first of the three parts.

How will you define Anonymous?

Anon 1 : Anonymous is not a party, group, association, organization. It is a collective, and the name can be used by anyone. We are an idea and represent only that. Anonymous is often misunderstood as a group, but we are not. We have no leaders, set rules, or set agendas. We are just a collective of ideas put together under a common name.

How long has Anonymous been active in India?

Anon 2 : I'm sure there has been Anonymous in India before #opindia

Anon 1 : To answer that question we will have to start from the origins. In 2001, a site was launched called 4chan.org , where people could share and post images and ideas without any form of restrictions. There anyone who did not use a user name was given a title "Anonymous". It began from there.

We were just an internet prank group in the beginning. Then in 2010-2011 it all changed, a revolution began where we found a new purpose, to use our skills to the advantage of the world. And hence was born the anonymous movement.

And to clearly answer your questions, yes there were many anons in India long before OpIndia, but in the true sense of Anonymous today it would be from 2011 we had a huge Indian team within the anonymous international.

So what became the first trigger for Anonymous movements?

Anon 1 : The actual beginning of this revolution was in 2011 when the church of scientology was exposed to be a very evil cult. That was nothing but a spreader of hate and a monetary sponge. Anonymous hackers took it upon themselves to destroy this cult system and began a war against them. Most of the methods we use today were made up during that fight. Then began the Occupy movement to protest against the unfair economic system and anti-free speech laws by USA. Then the movement spread with that idea of protest far and wide, and then protecting free speech operations like wikileaks became a mission too.

A church spreading false information got Anonymous this far?

Anon 1 : It was not the Christian kind of church, it was a cult organization.

How will you define the ongoing censorship saga in India? The Indian internet scene never used to be same before.

Anon 1 : Nonsense! That is what is the best way to define it.

Anon 3 : The walls are closing in. There is always censorship, but the internet has kicked up the desperation. The speed of the internet makes for little room for evasion. You can't have no censorship, however who should do the censorship and how it should be implemented are important. We censor ourselves all the time, when you don't tell your friend's mom that food was ghastly, for example, censorship of religious content started after partition riots probably saved countless lives. The question is if that suppression of free speech achieves something useful. But when you block a website over potential pirated content... what is the trade off? What does it achieve? For whom? It is not the existence of censorship that is the problem, but arbitrary applications for profit.

Anon 1 :  Internet is the last surviving medium common people have to communicate freely and exercise free speech. The attempt to control that too is draconian idea and can't be forgiven. Internet is like diamond. It only has it's value because it is made to believe it is valuable. Any form of censorship was always and will be misused to suppress free speech. The ideology of anonymous is zero censorship. If you find something offensive don't read it. Same way we support censorship like protecting children from bad material. But We think adults are to have the maturity to moderate themselves, than asking for favorite service only.

Information is a buffet, you take what you want, don't force them to change menu for you.

Anon 4 : There has been few instances where people in power were affected. Example Abhishek Singhvi, and President Patil. After this, the desperation has spiked. You know that main stream media did not cover the Abhishek Singhvi case for weeks, even though the court had stopped only the distribution of video, not any news about it.

India has its own movie censorship board. Do you think having something called "censorship board" for movies clears the mentality of India? They want to censor everything they are not comfortable with.

Anon 1 : In a movie censorship it can help by not allowing one group to attack another. But same can't be  done with news and information. Who are the ones who will profit from the website blockade? Maximum 10 people The company owners and the producer. And for that lakhs have to be denied a free means of sharing information. For example - Bit torrent technology is used to share Linux operating system in a cheap way as it is free licensed. what explanation or solution does they have for disrupting that.

Anon 3 : You know what is interesting about the film censor board? It is the only medium that gets censored BEFORE publication/release. Do you know what these blocks achieve? Control - not over piracy - plenty of that is there. But control over unpredictability. Vimeo and youtube both share videos. Vimeo gets blocked. Youtube doesn't. why? You can no longer have a youtube account without your phone number attached. The control isn't over piracy, but over the actions of the people. ALL actions of people. I can show you live examples of piracy on youtube right this minute. Accessible to you and me and god and everybody.  If Vimeo goes to one of those govt meetings, and agrees to cough up privacy info on users, it will be unblocked in a minute

Anon 4 : Control over press and social media and information would do the worst ... hack people's mind.

Anon 1 : Facebook was not required to censor over piracy. Vimeo is used by 100s of free and small film makers in India. They went without job for weeks. No one cared about that. The government here was a partial supporter of the profits for the big corporates ignoring the needs of the millions. Another reflection for the corruption.

Related - Part 2 of this interview is here.
Related - Part 3 of the interview is here.

Don't you think someone who know law well, should file a PIL (against blockage of websites)?

Anon 1 : There are, but their court orders are never execute. And remember, Courts can't do anything once a law is made. If law says for this reason it can be censored, court can only work by that.

But there is no law which can order you to block a website right?

Anon 1 : There are laws. Our IT Act can. Our IT rules - applicable since last year are worse

Anon 3 : As per the IT rules, if I don't like a post you make on FB, all I have to do is send a signed email or registered letter or such to FB, and they ARE REQUIRED TO TAKE IT DOWN IN 36 HOURS. They don't have to tell you. And your post can be about the new T-shirt you bought. no one cares. And in any case, all existing public content regardless of medium can be blocked by courts

Anon 4 : People are already suffering due to this... and they are powerless, moneyless and contact-less.

While I am interviewing them, another anon joins us. The anon announces that their Twitter account @opindia_revenge, which was suspended a week ago, is back.  Everyone in the room seems very happy about this.

Anon 5 : opindia_revenge account is back!!!

Anon 3 : WTF!!!

Anon 3 : YAY!!!!!!

Me : Well that's a good news.

Anon 5 : :)

Anon 1 : Wow good news, hats in the sky

Anon 4 :  Yup ... another win for us :)

Anon 3 : hahaha... now we have two :D

Anon 1 : So they can do listen. Now lets hear the apology.

After being witness of their joy, I continue with the questions.

Do you think Government should decide what website one should visit, or what movie one should watch? Can't citizen think and decide themself? And i don't mean only piracy sites.

Anon 1 : Yes exactly. "Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself .. it is the hallmark of a failed government .."

Anon 3 : I think the govt should block websites that are harmful for citizens in specific ways. Security, child pornography. But it has to be specific. Not blanket. And it has to be minimal

Anon 1 : The best thing is to warn them and let them decide. If there is a site with phishing pages, for example, you protect people by blocking access to it, or child porn doesn't need any encouragement. As I told information is a buffet , you are not to change the menu.

Anon 3 : Though a button, like google has, would be better. This site is harmful, proceed at your own thing.

Anon 1 : We anonymous are against child pornography like water is to fire, we  hate it more than censorship or even terrorism.

Do you think Govt is under heavy lobbying?

Anon 3 : Of course. Not under lobbying, it is sold and inside pockets. Though it would be fairer to say that there is a symbiotic relationship

Anon 1 : Yes it is brother. I will ask your question. Who was the only group that had permission to run mobile services in india. It was only BSNL. Reliance started of with mobile service as if law was bull shit to them. Court asked them to pay a huge compensation to BSNL. Suddenly from nowhere a law came allowing private parties to enter mobile business. What the hell is that suppose to mean?

Anon 3 : I don't know if you saw our video. Govt sites were under attack from 11th to 14^th - Nothing (happened). Reliance got attacked, our govt made history by getting the first Anon account ever deleted - says it all. Reliance, for that matter operates outside laws very often.

If you look carefully at how the government or corporates operate, think back a bit. Even the censorship thing. Sibal's unthinking demand for prescreening. It got him thoroughly trashed everywhere. He said he didn't mean censorship and no censorship would happen. Then, a journalist comes out of the blue and gets a court order to ban exactly the same content.

Anon 4 : And then judge talks about making India as strict as China ! And now, Gol (Govt?) is planning to stop SSL and HTTPS totally in India.

Anon 1 : As if china is success full  in what it is doing.

Anon 3 : Reliance got a court order. Technically, they are supposed to have the injunction so that they can act fast against illegal urls. They used it to block entire sites, and no one opposed it. It just happened. What is more, ALL ISPs did that.

Anon 1 : But that is not necessary. URLS are not time bombs. People should learn tolerance

Anon 3 : Then, our hack of the reliance server (happened). We found urls blocked that had no call to be blocked. No court order, nothing. Reliance had blocked them, because it could. And while we got the list from the reliance server, it isn't too far fetched that each ISP has their own lists. Our issue with the govt is that it is the job of the govt to protect our rights. Which it is not doing. It is simply catering to whatever the powerful people want

Anon 4 : Government controlled media is not covering the fact that Reliance blocked URLs illegally.

End of Part 1.

Part 2 of the interview is here.
Part 3 of the interview is here.

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India, Piracy, Censorship, Government and Media : Where India Is Going?

Hello everyone, in this post, I wish to share my views about India, piracy, censorship, Indian Government and Indian media.

As you may know, the hactivist group Anonymous has launched an operation called #OpIndia against the recent website blockage in India. Some ISPs have blocked major file sharing websites including The Pirate Bay along with Vimeo and Pastebin. This move has sparked controversy once again and this time, it has caught attention of Anonymous. Anonymous have started DDoSing a number of Indian websites and have temporarily disabled them. They have also threatened to attack more websites.

While Anonymous kept attacking websites and brought them down since yesterday, the Indian Media acted immaturely. While a number of sites were being DDoS'd, the Indian media was busy reporting Shahrukh Khan and IPL. Even major news channels didn't pay attention on website being attacked and more importantly, why they were being attacked. The news channel also didn't care about the ongoing internet censorship saga. While a few big entertainment companies anyhow convinces the Government to order blockage of the file sharing websites every now and then, the Indian media is keeping mum on this matter.

This is the same media which was praised for reporting and helping in some of the high-profile cases such as Jessica Lal murder case. The media was considered to be mature since then, as they helped citizens to raise their voice against the injustice. the website blocking and internet censorship also a major issue to talk about. It is also violation of human rights and free speech as citizens are forcefully stopped from what they feel, is right to do.

Since last year, Indian Government is acting weirdly regarding internet censorship. First they threatened some big social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google to make them stop their operations in India if they don't remove "questionable" content and start governing all the content on their sites. Then a few ISPs started blocking a number of file sharing sites as per Department of Telecom (DoT) orders. There was no notification made public about this order and why there were blocking the sites. ISPs kept showing messages upon visiting the blocked websites that the site was blocked as per the DoT orders. Upon being asked, they denied any site being blocked. Now once again, they have started blocking a few websites as per "court orders".

You can download the court order from here or view online here. The court order does not mention to block any website anywhere.

It seems like India is on its way of becoming the next China and Iran on internet censorship issue, and all the media is busy broadcasting useless IPL and other news. They are busy showing who scored what, what happened on the ground, how cheer leaders danced, who wore what, who attended what party etc. But they don't even consider internet censorship an even more major issue to talk about. If the internet censorship saga continues, the results would be unexpected.

The Indian Government needs to re-think about their internet censorship views. While a large part of India is not even connected with internet, and ISPs are constantly failing to provide stable and high speed internet connectivity to its customers, they are more concerned about piracy! Piracy may be an issue but while the citizens have no access to a stable internet, do you really think it is more important to think about the piracy through internet? How many of you are going to download a movie which will take five or six hours to complete on a 256 kbps (broadband!) connection? Most people buy pirated movie and music from the street vendors. These vendors are not underground, they can be seen anywhere - on any cross road, near a public garden or even movie cinemas! If the Government and entertainment industry really cared about piracy, why won't they nab those vendors and find out who is behind them?

It is true that piracy hurts economically and it is not good to "steal" ethically, but the even more important thing is to think about why piracy happens? What is the reason that leads the citizens to pirate? Why would anyone have to "steal" anything if they have access to it freely? If you wanted to watch a movie in a cinema, you would have to spend 300 to 500 RS per ticket, excluding food you may buy during a movie. While it may not seem a big amount to many of those who are living in metro cities like Mumbai, it is still a big amount for the majority of the Indian citizens. If a family of four wants to watch a movie in cinema, they would have to spend about 1500 to 2000 RS. Not everyone could afford it. Those who can't afford it, considers buying a pirated DVD from a street vendor, who have all the latest pirated movies available right after their release. A pirated DVD costs about 50 RS and people think it is far more economic. Though those pirated DVDs will never give them a good movie viewing experience, who cares about it at all?

The Indian public is the most attached to only two things - Cricket and Bollywood. They are obsessed with movie stars. They are blind by the Cricketers' and movie stars' lifestyle, the fortune they have, the hospitality, they reputation they get, the facilities they get etc. Every second teenager in India thinks about being Cricketer or movie star. This attachment leads the people to reach their destination anyway, anyhow. A large amount of people go and watch live cricket matches everyday. A large amount of people watch movies every week, or even same movie more than one time a week. People would cross any limit for cricket and movies. But those who have desires but can't watch movies just like others do, would simply turn to piracy, just like bribing someone to get tickets anyhow for a cricket match.

As I said before, they can't afford the movies due to their high cost, but at the same time , they can't refrain themselves from watching a movie. It doesn't mean that if they can't afford it then they won't watch it. They would just buy a pirated DVD and watch it with their friends and family just as they would watch in a cinema! They don't even feel what they are doing might be wrong or unethical. They just use the resources available within their reach. They have both the choices available and they go for the one they feel right.

If the Indian Government and movie industry really wants to curb piracy, they need to re-think. Make the resources available to people at a price they could afford. Encourage them to go for what is ethical. Educate them, turn them to the right way. I would have to add that watching movies and buying movie or music DVDs would be affordable for the most, but you need to think about those for whom it isn't. People need to be educated. They need to be convinced about what they are doing is wrong. They should not buy a pirated DVD even if they can't afford the original. If you simply block the file sharing websites, it won't stop piracy at all. If you ban your children from doing something, do you think they will stop? They will just find another way. Why? Because they are children. They can't spot the difference between the right and the wrong. They need to be educated about what is wrong and right. Just banning them from doing something will make them rebel. The more you tie your children, the more they try to go free. The same goes for all the citizens. Censorship would turn citizens against the Government.

Indian citizens aren't well educated about their rights. When they are stopped from speaking, they will say "It's my right to speak, I am living in a free country." The same thing apply to censorship. Being stopped from visiting a website is also the violation of your right. If you really think you are living in a free country then how could you sit duck, doing nothing about different sites being blocked every now and then? Why would the Government have to block a website and create an atmosphere like we are living in shadow of fear?

The Government needs to understand that they do not own the internet at all. It is true that they provide infrastructure for internet and make it available to public, but they take fees for it. Internet is free, but internet access isn't. The customers pay a price to access the internet. And as a customer, it is their right to have access to all the resources they are paying for. They cannot be stopped from visiting a website you don't like. Leave it up to the customer to decide what to view and what not to. And while internet has become a part of people's life all over the world including India, how could you think about censoring it instead of taking it as a big platform for people and the country itself and making it freely accessible? Every invention have two sides - good and bad. Just because some are going the "bad" side, it doesn't mean to stop all those who are going the "good" way too.

And the Government need to think that if the censorship saga continues, how many of foreign companies will be pleased to enter the Indian market? If you would keep stopping them, they would never consider entering Indian market. The Government's target should be making India a free country, not a censored one. This could help India growing even faster. India is a very big market and everyone knows it. Why not use the available resources to something more important?

Let's hope the Indian Government would re-consider its plan to censor the internet. Let's hope that the Indian media will give more attention to this censorship issue. Let's hope that India stays a free, liberal country in every manner.

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The Most Irritating Indian Celebrities Of Year 2011

The end of year 2011 is near. This is the time when you will see news papers, news channels, magazines, websites and blogs bringing the most important events happened throughout the year. List of tragedies, list of people died, list of best gadgets launched, list of best innovations etc will be everywhere. I also thought that I should come up with such lists and I had a few ideas in mind but I don't feel like writing all that stuff. I have decided to bring up a list of The Most Irritating, The Most Annoying Celebrities Of the Year 2011.

Why I want to write about this? Well, because I feel like hammered in my head because of them. Every now and then, they are in news for some reason. These are the celebrities over hyped by the media. They try to do everything to be in news and those stupid media people help them out by including them as a part of their "Breaking News". I am really pissed off because of this. I mean enough is enough. They will give those celebrities so much - unneeded importance that sometime I feel like there are only celebrities all over and and nothing else happens in this country. I can't explain in words how irritating they are to me and I wish to present the list of Most Irritating Celebrities of India - Year 2011. There is no particular order.

Rakhi Savant
What should I say about her? She is self explanatory. Her name speaks for itself. Everything she do and say is top of the world! She has a big mouth and a long tongue. She has a view on everything and she is not ashamed of expressing it. Not a bad thing to do, as you have right to express your view in a free-speech environment but the fact is, I can't take it. Whatever she says, makes no sense at all.

She says she want to marry Baba Ramdev and can make Baba Ramdev lose his virginity!, she says she want C-string panties included in her wardrobe or she will not shoot a TV Show.. She calls a man Napunsak (impotent) on TV and she is again in news, as the man commits suicide after that incident. She says Katrina Kaif copid her dance steps in "Sheela Ki Jawani" and "Chikni Chameli". She will do anything to stay in news and our poor media is also giving her enough space to succeed. Everything she shays, they make a "Breaking News" out of it. Congratulations Rakhi, you are in my Most Annoying Celebrities list.

Poonam Pandey
"I will go nude if Team India wins the Cricket World-cup 2011" As soon as Poonam Pandey made this announcement, everyone went crazy. Woohooo! She's going nude boy! It's like dream coming true.. Let's pray India wins! And guess what, India wins the World-cup! What an inspiration she gave to those so called "men in blue" that they won the damn world cup. She tried and succeed to get attention and be super famous like Paraguay model Larissa Riquelme, who announced she will go nude if Paraguay wins the World Cup. (the only difference was that she Larissa kept her promise even if her team didn't win) Since then, this 19 year girl is media's most loved child. They actually started making news out of her statements and her hot photos posted on her Twitter account and her website. Just a matter of days, and she's talk of the town. Not town, the whole God damn country. The whole media is talking about her. News channels, news papers, magazines, websites, blogs, she's everywhere just because everyone thinks she's hot (and she is) and they can attract people to their channels and websites because she has become so much famous.

She thinks she provides inspiration to the Indian cricket team, she "boosts" their energy by posting raunchy photos. One day she posts a set of hot photos as inspiration, and the whole team miserably fails! What an "inspiration". One day she post a hot pic on Twitter and asks "do u think ne one in India has a hot body like this." "Of course not girl, of course not. You are the goddess. How can anyone has a body like you, no way!
She posts a new semi-nude, explosive photo every now and then on her Twitter account, and on her website. And you know what? She has put a lots of advertises on her website! Trying to grab some money ha! I haven't seen any celebrity website which contain ads!

Search her name on the internet and you will hardly find any photo in which she is fully clothed. But one thing to like about her is that she's okay with what she has been doing. She likes to show off and she does not regret. Everyone wants to be famous anyway. She chose her method.Welcome to the list Poonam.

Veena Malik
What do I say about her? All the way from Pakistan, here comes a girl named Veena Malik. Trying hard to get work, want to be famous. After failing in Pakistan, she tries out India and she succeeds, grabbing entry in Big Boss season 4, she gets famous after getting cozy with Ashmit Patel. Then she is constantly in news for one reason or another.

Then she does a nude photo shoot (or "only topless" as she claims) in a magazine and getting even more famous, also getting Pakistanis angry over it. Some Fatwahs against her, with lots of controversy, she is all the way on top of every type of media. After this, she goes "missing" for two days. Here comes media again. "Veena ka do din se koi ata pata nahi, aakhir kaha hai Veena Makik?" WTF man! Every news channel and news paper takes this news as a national news. And after two days, here comes Veena telling everyone that she was "tired and "just resting" in Mumbai. Wow.

After that. she has been invited by a TV channel to choose her better half on screen. The show is called Veena Ka Vivvah. Wow, a Pakistani will get to choose her spouse in India! Is there lack of eligible men in Pakistan? I guess not. Then why give her so much importance? Because it is India boy! We believe in Atithi Devo Bhava (the guest is God) and we welcome everyone to out great country. Good, but will we even make someone marry? Do we look like marriage counselor? There is no exchange offer going on like take Sania Mirza, give Veena Malik, is it?

Anyway, let's move to another person in the list.

Shahrukh Khan
Yes you read that right. Shahrukh Khan. The so called King of Bollywood. He is in this list for only one reason : Ra.One. When he announced he was going to produce a movie for kids, based on super hero theme, I fainted. It was going to be one of the costliest movies ever made in the Indian movie industry. He was investing a big amount of moolah in this movie and everyone thought it was going to be one of the greatest movies made in Bollywood. It was still a question that why he chose super here theme? To attract children along with their parents, everyone guessed. Good, there are hardly any movie made in Bollywood for kids anyway. But then started its promo, months before the release of the movie. "Ladaiyan goliyon se nahi, dil se jeeti jati hai", then starts its songs: "Wanna be my Chhammak Chhallo", the useless songs which I had to hear every time I turned on TV. No matter I am on a music channel, or news channel, it is shown everywhere. "Akon" sung is anyway ha! But what is this song doing in a kids' movie anyway? No one knows. Then comes a song like "bottie goes pop pop pop", with girls shaking their asses. Again, is this kids' will see in a movie? Wow.

And when he movie finally releases, it fails to impress the viewers (obviously) and Shahrukh is again in news. "Sharrukhji, aapko kya lagta hai, Ra.One kyu flop ho gai?", "Ra.One ne rulaya distributers ko!" Argh!! Stop it man! And then Shahrukh says he will make another part of Ra.One. Oh man no, not again! It's enough already. You are already one of the most annoying man of year 2011 man.

Kapil Sibal
Kapil Sibal is a good minister in cabinet I think, but he started being irritating when he recently asked a few internet giants like google, facebook, twitter etc to monitor content on their websites because these sites are becoming medium of expressing negative, objectionable content against politicians, religious figures etc. OK agreed that people posts content on these, or any other websites for that matter, which is objectionable for many, but that doesn't mean you can force those websites to monitor everything going on their sites. You are living in a free country. Every single human being can have their own views, which can't match your views, and you can't force them to change their views or keep their mouth shut. If you don't agree to someone's views, you should ignore it. Internet is a free medium of expressing views. You can't and should not try to censor it.

There's hardly any country without internet. And there's objectionable content about every single political leader of any country, even Barack Obama. But everyone knows this is part of life. Everyone knows they can't expect everybody to write only good thing about them. You have to get with it. China is a great example of internet censorship but their country and our country are different. They don't have the freedom of speech there. Every voice raised against the government is curbed. India is not the same.

What Mr. Kapil Sibal is trying to do is not wrong, but the way is wrong. If you want websites to monitor and filter content, then you should first make a clear policy, a clear law for the same. Only then you can ask the websites to remove the content or stop their operation in India. Every website is abide by law in every country they operate in, but if you don't have the law then what they abide to? And even if you come up with a law, it is impossible to ask any website to stop operation in India. These are large websites. Large, very large amount of people are related to them in one or another way. If you keep monitoring every single thing said on these websites, people are simply going to stop using them. No one like to be under a constant watch every time. The aftermath of proposed censorship can be unexpected. Think again about it.

I would like to add a few more names quickly before I end this post:

Narendra Modi - For holding "Sadbhvna Fasts" and trying to attract Muslim voters, denying to wear a Muslim Skull Cap and creating drama and making news everywhere, being in constant news as the future Prime Minister of India.
Vidya Balan - For showing the same expression on your face throughout the year as Silk Smitha in The Dirty Picture.
Digvijay Singh - For making stupid, non-sense statements throughout the year. Get a better thing to do mister.
Abhishek Bachchan - For working in those stupid "No Idea, Get Idea" ads. "Sirf mera hi mobile bill itna zyada kyu aata hai?" "Par tum to sirf sms bhejti ho" Abe sale pura din sirf message hi bhejegi to bill to zyada hi aayega na!

Okay, so this was my list of the most annoying India celebrities of the year 2011. I wish I could add a few more annoying celebrities here but I don't have enough time to bring a longer list so I am done here. I will be back with new posts soon. Enjoy the holidays, and have fun.

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November 29 : Pay A Blogger Day : A Great Idea of Appreciating Bloggers

A few days ago, I received an email from Flattr about something called "Pay A Blogger Day". I was like, what is that? Pay a Blogger? I mean I could be paid for being a blog writer? I don't need those stupid ads to be shown on my blog anymore, to earn a few bucks? I mean it could really happen? Bullshit. I never thought that way. But hey, the idea of paying a blogger is really nice. "Pay a Blogger Day is our effort to put the bloggers in the spotlight to recognize the value they bring to the internet. Not to mention our own daily web consumption" the page on Flattr blog reads.

While these cool guys at Flattr are planning to celebrate the Pay A Blogger Day tomorrow - 29th November, I think it is really a good chance to write up my experience with blogging, how I started this blog and how well it is going.  Read on to know my experience of starting a blog and making it helpful to others.

You know what? I really never thought of being helpful to others by writing a blog. I always intended to make my blog to be the cool, nice place where I could hangout, I could write my ideas, thoughts and stuff, where I could share my experience with everyone and by this way or that, I have succeeded somewhat.

I mean this is not the place I always wanted to make what it is right now, but when I actually created my blog, I wasn't really sure about what to write? I used to read others' blogs and found them interesting. I like reading, and writing too. But what would I write man? I wasn't sure yet.

Then I thought to start by posting some interesting news. But there are thousands of news sites, open for years, who's gonna read mine? Days kept passing and one day I started by posting my own iPhone experiences and experiments. Now this is what I like to write about the most. I started to post different iPhone tutorials and not to mention, no one used to read them. Sigh..! My first actual article was about saving SHSH blobs. How many people read that? Not more than 200! And no, I wasn't surprised.

Then I started to post some tech news. And about 20 people read them. Days kept passing, post count kept increasing and reader count? The same - 5, 20, 25, 39... time to lose hope. Shut this damn blog, no one's ever gonna read it. But I didn't stop. I kept posting iPhone tutorials and other stuff. As day kept passing, I kept posting, no matter anyone reads my blog or not.

Then all this started changing. I stopped updating my blog for weeks. I was like, it don't matter I write or not. But it was my child, I would never abandon it. Then I started posting again. Back with a bang eh!

My iPhone tutorials were grabbing attention. daily page views started increasing. People actually started reading my tutorials. They started asking for help. And this was the great feeling! My blog actually started making sense!! This boosted my enthusiasm and love for my blog. I started posting more and more about iPhone, mostly tutorials. And people found them helpful. What a time that was!

After having enough page views as per my satisfaction, I felt like I should just go this way - post about iPhones, tutorials, news everything. Then I jumped on technology track. Being a tech geek, it wasn't hard to write up some tech stuff. And that's it. My blog, turned a tech blog. But actually I don't just write about tech stuff. I always grab a chance to write about some interesting things going around. I write about the governments, the people, things that matters to me and others, and I like to post my views.

After having 150 posts on my blog (it could be more, but I removed a few in early days) I no more think about how many people are going to read it, what people will think, what the will say, I don't think all this. It was one of the happiest day in my life when I bought my own domain! and my blog turned Blog O Nerd.

And yeah, I was talking about Pay A blogger Day right? Well, it doesn't really matter being paid. I could be paid in cash by putting that Please Donate button on my blog. But I never thought to be paid for my blogs. Everything I post about are my own experiences and I don't think I am doing anyone a favor by writing. But this doesn't mean I don't need money. I need it. That's why I started adding ads on my blog. I, myself don't like ads but I have to put them here. I need a good money for my upcoming exams and I hope people visiting my blog don't get the wrong idea.

Do you think any of my posts were useful to you? Do you think I could be paid money for my tutorials? Well, even if you think yes, I don't want it. I don't want to ask for money, if you think I could be paid even a little penny, just give it to anyone in need. Any poor, needy one could have that buck instead of me. They are the one who actually needs money, more than me. If you really want me to have some money, please use Flattr. It is a great idea of sharing revenues. I will not keep the money and will donate to others.

You know what, when people say, "Man! This was really helpful. You really saved my life! Thank you", it feels great. If you really like my posts, share them with others, it is all I can ask. If you like, send me an email, having a cool photograph or video of you, your children, your pets, especially cats - and their cute kittens! Send me your love, your good wishes, a picture of rose, a poem, a song, a joke anything you like that can make someone smile.  My email is - iambl0gger@yahoo.com. And if I get your love and best wishes, I plan to remove some ads from my blog.

Okay then, that's it from me today. Have a happy Pay A Blogger Day tomorrow.

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An Open Letter To Facebook : 10 Reasons Why Facebook Is Stupid, Boring and Annoying

Hello Facebook.
How are you. Fine I guess. Today I wanted to tell you what I really feel about you. A few years ago when I joined you, it was the time of Orkut here. I was like an immigrant who left orkut and joined you as a part of doing and having something new. Then my friends joined it too. You kept getting bigger and bigger. And now there you are with millions of people from all over the world. While a large number of people is enjoying your company, I wanted to tell you that you are actually a stupid, boring and annoying thing. I really wish I did not have to say that but this is true. I would like to express my feelings about you. I hope you like this letter, I have written it with a great care and love for you.

Tip : Want to delete your Facebook account permanently? Click here for step by step tutorial on How to Delete your Facebook Account Permanently.

10 Reasons Why Facebook Is Stupid, Boring and Annoying

Reason 1
Whenever I visit you, you give me a really warm welcome. So warm that gets me hot from my head to toe! Why? Because you are dumb and always welcome me with your never ending list of "People You May Know". How the hell you gonna know whom I know and whom I don't. Get the hell out of my way. "Perez, add more friends". "Perez, here are some people you may know" Get the hell out of my way I said!

Now one problem with us, the humans is that we don't like to be told of something again and again. There may be many times in everyone's life that they have told someone not to keep repeating something before them. Am I wrong? No I am not. We don't like to be reminded again and again. When someone keeps repeating it, you surely going to yell "I fucking know it, don't keep telling me that". Don't believe it? Come on, don't lie, I know you do.

But you are really stupid not to understand this real simple psychology. You keep annoying me again and again. If I click that so little close button, it will not show that person for a while but when I come back the other day, that person is right in front of me in the list of people you may know. And how many time am I supposed to be clicking that close button? The list never ever ends. You keep scrolling and it keeps getting larger and larger! Now how am I going to deal with that?

Reason 2
When I "like" something, it keeps giving me updates. For example, if I like some band on facebook, it will keep showing their recent updates. I know how this thing works but it doesn't mean when I "like" something, I want to receive their not-so-important updates. I like the band, I like the product, but I just "like" it. I like so many things, so many people, but you have changed the way of "liking". Liking means I "like" it, the general meaning of like, you get it dumbo? When I say I want to receive updates from that product or person, then, only then show me their updates okay?

The solution to this will be to click that "unlike" button. But I like that. I don't want to unlike it. I want to show everyone what I like. I just don't want their updates okay? Argh! You are really tough to make it understand.

Reason 3
You prevent me from sending friend requests. This is what it proves once again that you are dumb. You keep showing me that never ending list of people I may know. You don't know the hell about me do you? You just think that the friend of my friend is my friend too. Don't you? (You even show me people who are not even friends of my friends, they are just random people you show me) Now sometimes when I think I should add someone from that list, and the person does not confirm me as friend, you block me from sending friend requests. It was YOU who "suggested" me those friends. And now when I sent requests to them, they don't know me, so they don't confirm my friend request (obviously), you take me as someone who is bullying or harassing or spamming people and prevent me from sending other friend requests. And you know what, you don't even tell me that I am blocked from sending friends requests unless I try to send one. Brilliant!

Now if you think I should send friend requests to only those whom I "personally know" then why the hell you keep suggesting me friends? I will find them if I want them. Either stop showing me people I may know, or stop blocking me from sending friend requests. Simple enough dumbo!

Reason 4
You don't allow me to choose my own name. I am not free to have my name my way. You try to act as a big daddy on all of your members don't you? I must have my "real" name if I want to join facebook. You have a large list of possible names and no one can choose any other name out of it? Now why the hell you don't understand that I should be free to choose what name I want to show to the other members. Its my goddamn account and I do hell with it. Why would you act at a Government department where I must fill my real name in those forms? I am not applying for Government grants or something.

Reason 5
You have always problems with privacy. You try to act as the biggest platform when people from all over the world join together and create a "social network" and you have apparently succeeded. But you still don't pay attention to my privacy. I always need to change my not-so-effective privacy settings. They are not even easy to understand and implement. A lot of your members don't seem to care about this. They don't care about their privacy being violated time to time but I really love my privacy. But you always fail to protect it. I can't easily change my privacy in a way that certain people can see my update and some should not see it. You allow me to change this settings but when I have a lot lot friends its hard to keep adding and removing people from that settings. I want to allow a certain amount of people to see just photos of me and some people must see my recent updates. Can you allow me to do so?

Reason 6
I really don't like when people add tags of me in their photos. Even if that is me in the photo, I don't like to be tagged. As I told you before, I love my privacy. I don't want anyone to add tags of me even with my knowledge. But you don't give me that freedom. I can just choose if the tag of me apperas in my profile or not but the tag is still there. Why?

Reason 7
This is the same reason as above. You allow people to add someone as their family member, and when someone adds me as a family member, you ask me to confirm it. Good, but I don't want to be shown as a family member to anyone, so I reject it. But even after rejecting the request, my name is still shown in their list of family members. There is not link on my name in that list, but still my name is there. I don't want it bro. If I reject someone's request of adding me as a family member, then I should not be there at all. Do you get it?

Reason 8
You are a piece of boredom. People join you, add friends, post their photos, people "like" them, people comment on them "Hey you look awesome!", "Wow, that little puppy is really cute, what's his name?", "Hey where did you get that handbag from? Its great. I want one" and blah blah blah. That is it? I mean really that is it? That's what you can do? What else? Create groups? Make people join them, chatting, games and that's all? I mean what is there which will increase my knowledge? You will say you can't expect a "social networking site" to increase your knowledge. But I don't think so. When I'm on Twitter, I come to know what is going around the world just by looking at those trend items. People share their happiness, people show their griefs on Twitter. People even argue and fight on Twitter! Those 140 characters are worth a million words. And I don't even need those "likes" to know how many people agree with me. It is not always about liking and commenting on peoples' stuff. And you know what, even when people posted that "Steve Jobs is dead", people "liked" it. Ironic! What does that mean man!

Reason 9
You keep spying on me. Don't show me that fake "surprised look" okay? I hear people saying you keep track of my whereabouts even after I log out from you. They are wrong? Then prove it! Also, every time I change my name, email, contact number, you keep track of it. Even if I remove my old email or contact numbers from my profile, you still keep them in your database. Don't try to pretend you don't know anything. We both know you do. If I searched for someone, you even keep track of it. So when I try to search similar name again, you show me that previously searched name first. Prove me wrong if you want. I have a strong feeling of you working as an "agent". You keep eating peoples' information. You feed this information to Governments too? I have a feeling you do.

Reason 10
You don't allow me to block Mark Zuckerberg. You will ask why the hell I would want to block Mark Zuckerberg. My answer will be - I just want to do it. Reason may be any or no reason at all but I want to do it. That's it. It should not be you who will decide whom I should block and whom I should not. Its my account and why the hell I should not be free to choose whom to block? It doesn't matter to me if he's the founder of you and I don't really care. And you even lie saying "Blocking system is overload" Dumbo!!

Okay then facebook, this is it. I said what I wanted to say. I hope you don't mind what I said. If you paid attention to any of these reasons, consider thinking about them okay?

Until next time,
Bye.

Tip : Want to delete your Facebook account permanently? Click here for step by step tutorial on How to Delete your Facebook Account Permanently.

Okay people this was my letter to our dear Facebook. I tried to express my feelings which were crawling inside me since long. Today was the day when they actually could come out. To all those facebook lovers - Don't come crying here telling me what I said is wrong. "Facebook? Did you just say facebook? Facebook is stupid? who said that ha? How dare you call facebook stupid and boring. I use it everyday, I don't think so! Why the hell someone call facebook annoying?" I don't want to read any of these, really. You need to calm down dude! I tell you what I think. If you don't think so, then leave it that way, but I really think facebook is Stupid plus Boring plus Annoying. I've got my reasons for it. You've read them. If you didn't, then read. If you don't want to, then leave. And of course you are free to comment what you feel but just don't get hyper on me.

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Spammers Sending Spam Emails That Looks Like YouTube Emails : Do Not Open

This article has been updated on 13th March 2012.

Hey everyone. Today I just checked my other email account and was surprised to see a YouTube email lying in my inbox. The email message was titled as "You have 1 notification from YouTube". I was surprised because I have not registered on YouTube using that email ID. Then I thought I may have used it in past to sign in to YouTube, but I couldn't remember. I opened the email speculating it was 99 percent spam mail. And when I read the message, it looked like the following.

Click picture to enlarge.

On mouse over, the link, that looked like a "legit" YouTube link, spoke the truth. As you can see in the bottom left corner of the screenshot, the link was actually linking to another web page and that is enough to tell it is a spam email. Still curious to see where actually it takes me, I copied the link lying under the youtube link, and opened in another browser. The link was actually a redirect link, which takes you to another website. This website is some sort of Viagra website.

And, I LOLed. I don't understand why these Viagra sites always show their ass off. This kind of Viagra websites are being spammed everywhere. I've seen them in emails, on many popular websites, in forums, in chat rooms almost everywhere I can say. They usually use link redirection to take you to a web page you are not supposed to visit, well unless you actually want to buy some Viagra!

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Digging up why these spammers send everyone these "Viagra" emails, I found that the company that actually makes the "original" Viagra, Pfizer, sells Viagra Pills at very high rates (obviously!). And in most countries, to buy a Viagra Pill, you need a doctor's written prescription. Now buying a Viagra is not something you would like everyone to know. So many people likes to buy them online. And this is where the spammers come in the picture. The companies who replicates original Viagra pills, and sells them at low prices, usually have some affiliate options available. Becoming an affiliate and bringing customers to their website is something they pay their affiliate for. So these spammer ass creates link redirects and sends them in emails. Clicking on which makes them earn profit, as those false Viagra sites will pay them for bringing a "customer" to their sites.

I was not surprised by seeing this Viagra Spam email in my email, but I was surprised to see it in my "inbox" and not in "spam". I mean Yahoo really thought it was a legit YouTube email? Damn!And you all, don't open these kind of emails okay? They may be harmful in a way you never thought of.

Update : Here are some more legit looking spam e-mail that titles - You Tube Service sent you a message : Your video has been approved.  Now you will wonder what video you uploaded and since when YouTube got the approval system? If you click any of the link in the e-mail, that looks like very much of an e-mail from YouTube itself, you will end up on any spam, unwanted website, on a page that hosts a script that might steal your data or downloads a malware onto your computer etc. My e-mail is being bombarded with this YouTube spam e-mail everyday. And thousands of other people are receiving these kind of spam e-mails everyday. This emails goes in your "inbox" too.

 

The different titles for these YouTube spam emails includes:

• YouTube Service sent you a message: Your video on the TOP of YouTube
• You Tube Service sent you a message : Your video has been approved
• Congratulations, Your video on TOP10
• YouTube - Thank you for your video
• YouTube Service sent you a message: Your video has been approved

Upon digging up where these e-mails are being sent from, they suggest different locations (obviously) like Taipei, Romania, Bangkok etc. Spammers usually use different e-mail service providers and different locations. It is never easy to track them down completely. 

Why am I receiving this kind of YouTube Spam e-mails? 
This is an obvious question. If you receive tons of this youtube spam mail shit, you are probably one of those people whose e-mail has been sold to third-parties for money. You provide your e-mail address everywhere when you sign up for an account anywhere on the internet. These websites, forums etc. have "policy" that assures you that your personal details will never be shared with third parties. But where easy money is involved, there's no "policy" to take care of. Not all websites do this. But the number of websites who sell your personal details like e-mail is not small. Spammers get your e-mail accounts and bomb you with this kind of shit-mails. I don't know what fun is it to send this kind of useless e-mails but it sounds like pure fun for those spammers. You should never use your personal email address to sign up to to these websites. You can create a secondary email using which you can sign up to different websites.

It is also possible your e-mail is publicly available on the internet. There are several social networking sites on which you provide your e-mail address and even make it publicly viewable. In this case, those spammer-asses does not have to spend any penny to get your e-mail address.

There can be another reasons too for your e-mail being "leaked out". For example, a website you have signed up on has been hacked and its database is dumped and made publicly available. This is a jackpot for those spammers. They get a large number of e-mail address to bomb with spam.

What to do when I receive this kind of spam e-mails?
When you receive spam emails, they are supposed to go into your spam or junk folder, but as I said earlier, some spam emails even land in your inbox. (This makes me doubt if the spam filter even actually works!) It is up to you to identify any suspicious looking e-mail. You need to be smart enough not to get fooled by these kind of "legit looking" emails. As I said, I received youtube spam emails on an email address I never used with youtube. If this is the case with you too, then you should be able to know that this is obviously spam mail.

If you identify a spam email, you should not open it and delete it right away. If you open the email, probaly because you didn't know it was spam (because it landed in your inbox!), always check the links before clicking. Mouse over the links and see if the links are actually what they look like. If the hyperlink beneath the URL is different, never click it. If you click the links in those spam emails, you are making a mistake. It may take you to a Viagra selling website,  it may take you to a genuine looking website where they ask for your personal details. It could be anything, just never click the links or images inside these emails.

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