As of tonight, Etisalat/TRA has blocked the entire community subdomain at LiveJournal. This means that any community blog there is now inaccessible outside the freezones, by the old system:
http://community.livejournal.com/[community_blog_name]
However, community blogs are still accessible by LJ's newer system:
http://[community_blog_name].livejournal.com
Compare and contrast:
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt - blocked
http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com - unblocked
You can also still access these blogs through your and other peoples' LJ Friends page (example). You can also use a third party RSS reader such as Bloglines to read them.
I'm going out on a limb here because I believe this glitch is an error, and if it's not, then it's a massive threat and insult to UAE bloggers, who have overwhelmingly conducted themselves sensibly and legally over the past years.
I dont think it is an error. Some bright guy in etisalat must have seen sone 'objectionable' content in one of the LiveJournal community websites and made a recommendation to block the 'entire website'. Same as Flickr and Myspace.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Google translation service is blocked but still can be accessed if you search for a the website and click on 'translate this page'.
I would think they just (technically) missed out on blocking http://whatevercomeshere.livejournal.com; which can most possibly be reversed if they are keeping an close eye on you, SD.