Google to censor bloggers who use Blogspot.

Google has quietly announced changes to its Blogger free-blogging platform that will enable the blocking of content only in countries where censorship is required.
Twitter announced technology last week addressing the same topic. It said it had acquired the ability to censor tweets in the countries only where it was ordered removed, instead of on an internet-wide basis.

Twitter’s announcement via its blog sparked a huge online backlash. The microblogging service was accused of becoming a censoring agent.

You wouldn’t be surprised in future if you visit Blogspot.com other than in US country you’ll be redirected to your country specific URL in browser in fact its happening now – where Google redirecting Indian users from blogspot.com domain to blogspot.in. For e.g if you visit Googleblog.blogspot.com URL from India you’ll be taken to Googleblog.blogspot.in URL.

Why Blogspot.com blogs redirected to blogspot.in?

Blogger’s help page confirms this.

If you’re reading a blogspot.com blog in Australia blogspot servers detects your IP address and redirects you to country-code top level domain or ccTLD if supported in your country here you’ll be redirected to blogspot.au.

“Migrating to localized domains will allow us to continue promoting free expression and responsible publishing while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests pursuant to local law. By utilizing ccTLDs, content removals can be managed on a per country basis, which will limit their impact to the smallest number of readers. Content removed due to a specific country’s law will only be removed from the relevant ccTLD. “
http://techdows.com/2012/01/google-starts-redirecting-blogspot-blogs-to-country-specific-urls.html

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/google-censoring-blogger/