UAE Community Blog: Youtube.com Blocked!

26 July, 2006

Youtube.com Blocked!

Just realized this morning that both Youtube.com and metacafe.com are blocked by Etisalat.

Metacafe allows adult content but it doesn't make any sense blocking Youtube.com (its clean)

Please send your feedbacks to etisalat http://feedback.ecompany.ae/

48 comments:

grapeshisha said...: Just ridiculous. As the Internet moves towards video content, they ban it. No doubt they will probably say that they will provie their own offering in the year. And give it a few weeeks and they'll ban all media. Then it will be all webmail, and all information related sites. One day, they'll end up banning their own site, by mistake.; 26 July, 2006 12:04
Woke said...: And I forgot to mention the rebanding direction - "The new identity reflects Etisalat's values of transparency, optimism, openness, simplicity and reliability."; 26 July, 2006 12:39
Anonymous said...: these suckers. what's wrong with flickr, youtube and metacafe? what's their problem??; 26 July, 2006 13:05
Tim Newman said...: One day, they'll end up banning their own site, by mistake.

LOL!; 26 July, 2006 13:46
Anonymous said...: The problem is that such cenrosring is often med with approval from hordes of parents saying something like "We feel safe that Etisalat is censoring bad videos because otherwise our kids will watch it...."; 26 July, 2006 15:29
Woke said...: They feel safe? I thought bad videos killed only radio stars.

They could have blocked videos tagged with some 'inappropriate' words. Blocking hosts like flickr, youtube is absurd because people can always host such videos/images in other hosts.; 26 July, 2006 15:54
nzm said...: Blocking hosts like flickr, youtube is absurd because people can always host such videos/images in other hosts.

Woke - I don't think that this is the issue here.

Sure, folks in the UAE can use other sites to host your images and video, but by blocking access to more popular hosting sites such as Flickr and Youtube means that people within the UAE also can't access the (mostly overseas) content that other people host on these sites.; 26 July, 2006 16:16
Anonymous said...: could it be because of the film on armenian streetwalkers here in dubai? etisalat wake up. blocking sites is not good!!; 26 July, 2006 16:23
Woke said...: nzm,
What I meant was the YouTube Videos can still be uploaded in another host in a downloadable format. But as you rightly said, the accessibility is lost.

By the way http://javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php is a place where you can download all the videos of You Tube Metacafe and many otherhosts without visiting the specific website.; 26 July, 2006 16:54
secretdubai said...: What absolute wankers. Well, bad luck Etishite, because you're not blocking me any more.

This is, quite simply, war.; 26 July, 2006 17:10
Axonsax said...: war..?

a tad strong don't you think......esp when you all know ways round it..........; 26 July, 2006 17:16
secretdubai said...: Not everyone does.

I would blog this, but there have been a lot of temporary blocks recently, so I'm hoping it's just that. Though my other arrangements have already been made.

I love watching pop videos and Big Brother clips on YouTube, and I'm not having my innocent fun spoiled by a load of hypocritical, ill-educated zealots.; 26 July, 2006 17:27
Ahsan Ali said...: You know, you can contact them and have them unblock it .... only if YouTube's Terms and conditions are compatible with theirs (i.e explicit banning of nudity, etc).

On the other hand, if a site like a flickr doesn't explicitly discourage _nudity_ or _pornography_ then they will not unblock it.

I just quickly browsed through YouTube's 'terms of use':

"you further agree that you will not ... submit material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, libelous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, violate any law, or is otherwise inappropriate"

I think that qualifies. I encourage you all to write to Etisalat (or write about this block on your blogs) instead of raging against them. (That said, I'm going to be raging against them very soon about a personal problem I am having with them. hahahaha.)

If you reason with them, there's a good chance they will unblock it.

Of course, the site in question has to actively adhere to its terms of use.

That said, I don't personally approve of this block (or that of flickr).; 26 July, 2006 18:17
marwan said...: Just frickin' marvellous. The one thing that kept me sane over the summer and they have to go and block it.

Give the people what they bloody want, and what they want is freedom.; 26 July, 2006 19:04
samuraisam said...: doubleletter: you act like Etisalat is a humanitarian organisation; it isn't; it has blocked flickr, it has blocked numerous websites without reason and rarely does it give one, and even more rarely does it actually unblock something.; 26 July, 2006 19:58
nativeinformant said...: Seems like there are two tiers of web access - there is no censorship of access in free zones and on gov't university campuses (like Zayed University, although private universities like AUS are subject to blocked sites). The free zone thing I get, but why the disparity in university access?; 26 July, 2006 22:30
Ahsan Ali said...: No, samuraisam.

As the original poster 'Ashraf' said, we should send our feedback to them http://feedback.ecompany.ae/ and reason with them.

Remember, Etisalat is a mini-shekhdom within a sheikhdom. The sour reality is that they don't give us the reasons; we do.

Surely you don't buy it when they say 'our mission is to ... etc etc' ?; 27 July, 2006 08:40
Woke said...: Yeah. I think doubleletter is suggesting something practical. "I hate you Etisalat" posts only makes us feel good. Doesnt help much. 0.o

I have already sent them an unblock request. And I hate you Etisalat.; 27 July, 2006 08:52
samuraisam said...: doubleletter: they would rarely block such a popular site 'by mistake'; they're probably going to issue some vague statment stating it is against the rules of what they consider to be 'morally ok'; by all means send e-mails to them, but don't expect anything from them at all in return.; 27 July, 2006 13:22
Woke said...: Etisalat had for sometime blocked www.deviantart.com which hosts artwork submissions some of which are 'adult-oriented'. It was unblocked after they received a large number requests(I presume). So maybe, those bugheads will do a rethink if they get a considerable number of requests.; 27 July, 2006 13:42
فهد المحمود said...: Oh My God! Etisalat had gone too far ... Now I realize how lucky I was to live in the US for 10 years and enjoy the internet with no boundaries ...

Etisalat is taking the easy way to censor adult contents ... which is just block the whole site! What a huge disappointment ... I think I will think seriously about obtaining another proxy ....

I also think it's time that we all display a banner against etisalat stupid actions ....; 27 July, 2006 14:06
فهد المحمود said...: I guess (Google Video) is next!; 27 July, 2006 14:17
samuraisam said...: woke: flickr.com ring a bell?

deviantart.com isn't *that* big; in comparison to flickr and youtube it's tiny.

The main reason some sites get blocked is because of securecomputing's incompetence, they tend to block sites that don't differentiate between pages containing adult content and those that don't.

youtube does differentiate, it has a page which blabbers on about the page it links to containing adult content.

Deviantart requires the user to sign up before viewing adult content, but etisalat still doesn't have any ability to block every adult related page easily.; 27 July, 2006 14:24
Woke said...: For gods sake sam, why dont you let me do some positive thinking? :D

I know the possibilities of an unblocking is very remote. But lets give it a shot...coz You Tube is too good a resource to lose.; 27 July, 2006 16:00
samuraisam said...: woke: a quote I think I can attribute to the movie "Bad Santa" goes as follows...

"How about you shit in one hand and wish in the other and see which one fills up first"

*ting* *ting*... 3 points for me.; 27 July, 2006 16:39
samuraisam said...: sorry; exact quote is "Willie: Why don't you wish in one hand, and shit in the other. See which one fills up first."; 27 July, 2006 16:51
Woke said...: Sam,
I decided to bribe them with a home page redesign idea..

http://img101.imageshack.us/my.php?image=etisalathomehj4.jpg
What do you think?; 27 July, 2006 18:52
Ashraf said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 27 July, 2006 19:18
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 27 July, 2006 23:29
John B. Chilton said...: So while youtube contributors are providing compelling video of the Lebanese perspective on the war those in the UAE can get it.

One example of many: YouTube - Lebanon; 28 July, 2006 06:02
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 30 July, 2006 00:03
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 30 July, 2006 00:12
Anonymous said...: I think this is because of Grumpy Goat or someone posting videos of Dubai with the *very creative* but poor taste animation shots of Modesh shagging a sheep.

Serves you guy right!; 30 July, 2006 00:41
Grumpy Goat said...: I'm fascinated, Anonymous
30 July.

I didn't realise I was capable of *very creative* animations. There are no videos on my blog!; 30 July, 2006 10:09
Ashraf said...: I agree, that video is in poor taste. Though I haven't seen it, it does sound DISGUSTING.; 30 July, 2006 11:24
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 30 July, 2006 23:45
secretdubai said...: Hello all,

I hate to act like the very same oppressive tyrants we all abhor, but for reasons of all our safety and this place falling foul of "obscenity", I've removed all comments with the f-word.

If people could re-comment, using an alternative ("fricking" "franging" whatever) it would be great.

Sorry again, but at times like this with censorship escalating, we really need to stay safe and keep this place open.; 01 August, 2006 13:41
Anonymous said...: hey guys...do you think that youtube will ever be "recovered" again?; 04 August, 2006 00:31
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 08 August, 2006 23:11
secretdubai said...: Anon - thank you for that link, however I sadly have to delete it because although I fully agree with you that it's not illegal by any sane, intelligent person's judgement, as you know they make up their own rules and laws here. There only has to be a whiff of this place posting alternative methods to access proxied sites, and we'll all go down.

Thank you anyway for trying, it's a good solution, and it does work (for now).; 08 August, 2006 23:18
Anonymous said...: today I woke up to find that piczo site is blocked , all my stuff are gone , they should have blocked freewebs instead of piczo , piczo has nothing bad in it , while freewebs does; 16 September, 2006 14:40
Unknown said...: Hey folks! Try this:

http://208.65.153.253/; 02 August, 2007 17:45
Anonymous said...: For Etisalat there is a paid service which works 100%,and there is no proxy involved. It is called Unblock Etisalat - genius :). The address is http://www.unblocketisalat.info/; 15 March, 2008 09:33
Shijaz said...: Please take a look at these:

http://blog.shijaz.com/2008/04/vulnerability-in-youtube.html

http://adnanrafik.com/blog/?p=114

We reported on an issue which was caused by Etisalat - its still an open issue - concerning youtube!

Both these blogs got blocked inside the UAE mysteriously between 9:30pm and 2am last night!; 20 April, 2008 18:19
Anonymous said...: whoaa!!..

guys don't make a big deal out of it .. u can always have a program to help u access any site u want. u can always send etisalat an email on thr block sheet link about the site. i called them to ask how can we unblock and they said if their is more people sending emails for such sited we will conceder unblocking it.

so all what u have to do is send an email or use any prog. to access; 25 December, 2008 01:03
Anonymous said...: lol .. the funniest hting was that i actually took my laptop for repear cause i thought that youtube isn't working because of my pc ! then i found out it was blocked ...
SHOCKED !
i dont see anything harmfull in youtube ..it's non sense to block the site !; 30 December, 2008 01:46
Anonymous said...: etisalat should have an option on wheter to block or not to block these website from their respective subscribers. In this, subscribers will be more responsible in their own acts.; 30 December, 2008 12:48
Anonymous said...: This is 2009. Go out, take a ride,walk around, enjoy the fresh air. Why watch youtube? it might be unblocked someday soon I hope, till then, just relax and have a good time.; 01 January, 2009 21:16