"It is our constant endeavour to maintain the perfect balance between ensuring that all our customers' requirements are met, and that we comply with all the guidelines of the TRA, including those on internet content filtering.
The World Wide Web offers us great opportunities to get and share information and to communicate. However, it is imperative that when making use of this technology for its enormous benefits, we respect the moral, social and cultural values of the United Arab Emirates.
du will be blocking all content that is not in line with these values, effective from 14 April 2008. Due to the nature of the content filtering process, some harmless sites may also inadvertently be blocked. We request our customers' assistance in informing us when a site that they consider harmless has been blocked, by writing to safesurf@du.ae so we can look into the matter."
more here
Du censorship first began on the 23rd of March with the blocking of the Secret Dubai Diary website
According to the following Khaleej Times article, the proxy on Du is a result of a new "Internet Penetration Policy" (which as far as I'm aware hasn't been published publicly by the TRA yet);
"In a Press statement yesterday, Mohammed Al Ghanim, Board Member and Director-General of TRA, said, “Since du is a new company that has just started to implement the concept of monitoring in the best possible way, it has to comply with the policy within a month from the date it is announced.”
However, a TRA spokesperson clarified, “The policy actually means proxy. It will regulate the web content allowed in the UAE. Since du is new, it has to wait for the policy before it can buy the software to regulate its web content. Etisalat is already following the policy. Both telecom operators have to abide by the TRA regulations.”
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15 comments:
SD should be proud :P
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
damn it, today was the first day I consider switching to DU cuz etisalat blocked facebook again... and then i googled some more to read this...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... etisalat are a bunch of hypocrites thieves..
They say Dubai is the "City of the Future" or some such non-sense. Even people here say Secretdubai should be banned for being "offensive". Do you realize how stone aged this ideology is? How harmful to growth and prosperity it really is? Imagine in history, around the world, if people that were deemed "offensive" were banned?
Narrow minded. Here's a little rule to live by, if you think someone's opinion is "offensive", don't listen to it. If someone is writing something you disagree with, don't read it.
You want to be a progressive country? You're going to have to learn, the harder you clamp down, the more your populace want true freedom. Welcome to the information age, you CAN NOT STOP IT.
No wait, you know... crime will improve now that Du has adopted the draconian censorship rules to "protect us from ourselves". Now that we're under the wing of our moral superiors, we'll be happier people. Now that I can no longer access my resource for photo-journalism because *gasp* there might be a photo of a... wait for it... NIPPLE (THE HORROR!!!). I feel much safer.
Don't judge or question, they know better than you. Good job.
Layers of control.
anonymous: The thing is that here the populace doesn't want freedom, they want the government to keep showering them with money.
No cue PE who will explain again how the proxy is a good thing..
There are numerous ways around DU stupidity..... Technology is moving forward - idiots will suffer. Feel sorry for this country...they still prefer to jump on camels...
'Internet penetration policy' -
LMAO - beautifully worded and apt with regard to internet porn sites!
Let's talk about sex! How is it immoral for a newly married couple to wanna know how to improve their sex lives? Where does a virgin wife get her info from? Thanks to censorship, the following sites are already blocked:
http://101-sex-positions.com/
http://www.car-sex-positions.com/
(lool @ above)
These aren't yet:
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/positions/
http://sexuality.about.com/od/sexualpositions/ig/Sex-Positions-Image-Gallery/
Yes, I know it's easy to get around the content filters, which is yet another reason why the whole thing is stupid. Net savvy teens (ideally, the ones theoretically being protected) have zero problems getting around this, and moderately switched on adults also have no problem. It's the everyday "lay" person who's being shafted.
http://i26.tinypic.com/10z69ag.jpg
No bb, I don't need to, the proxy is already there so it doesn't matter whether u are convinced or not.
Found a blog on this
http://buzz2point0.blogspot.com/2008/04/free-zones-now-face-censored-proxy.html
or http://buzz2point0.blogspot.com
From the informative link i*maginate has provided:
Have your guy stand facing you between your legs, then scoot your bum far enough forward (it may have to hang over the edge or even hover a few inches above the surface) so he can enter you. If you're too high up for him to reach you comfortably, he can stand on a phone book or sturdy crate.
Etisalat phone book could be put to some good use afterall…
I really do think I deserve a special medal for this. At the very least, a mention on du's wikipedia page ;)
If it is really to protect the “teens” then they can proide a filtering service for perants who want to protect their kids from the so called offensive material they can even charge people for this service (I recall charging people is some thing they are good at)
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