The self-appointed watchdog of the internet, Anonymous, has taken down Indian websites like the Supreme court and aicc.org.in, which is the official portal of the leading party of Government of India.

The attack comes as a response to the near-countrywide blocking of popular torrent sites like The Pirate Bay and video sharing websites like Vimeo. Since yesterday, major ISPs like Airtel, Reliance, MTNL, and You Broadband have blocked several websites following a John Doe order by the Madras high court.

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This didn’t go well with much of the internet user base in the country, and social media sites like Twitter & Facebook have been abuzz with people crying foul over the murder of internet freedom in the country. It looks like the anonymous was particularly irked by the blocking of TPB, and they launched an all-out attack under the name @opindia_revenge and have successfully managed to take down the websites of the Supreme court of India and AICC.

At present, they are trying to gun down the Department of Telecom website, which incidentally is working fine at the time of writing this article. Anonymous says that their next target is Reliance entertainment and Copyrightlabs, which had appealed in the Indian courts to get those John Doe orders.

There has been a huge uproar in India in recent times with ever-increasing interference from government agencies with the functioning and freedom of the internet. The latest attack on government websites does show the power of cyber activists, but I’m skeptical if it brings in the desired changes. Techmeme editor Mahendra Palsule contemplates,

These attacks by Anonymous on Indian Govt websites are likely to provide more fodder for politicians to ‘police the unruly Internet.’

Let’s wait and watch.

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