operadvorakblogdw8.png (PNG Image, 1024×744 pixels) — I first got wind of the site being blocked by one of our favorite readers and now it’s been confirmed by two sources. Although there is a feedback system I am told once you are blocked you may never get online again. Here is the comments from a Twit listener in the UAE who captured the screen shot linked above.
The entity that decides which sites get blocked is a government agency called the TRA (Telecom Regulatory Authority) and these blocks are implemented by the former monopoly Telco/ISP called Etisalat and you can go here (http://feedback.ecompany.ae/) to submit your reasons why any blocked site shouldn’t be blocked, but you’ll need a local Etisalat account. However that hardly works and takes a long, long time to get sites unblocked unless you get a huge media response in local papers like 7days.ae or Gulf-News.com.
It’s going to get even worse in this so called modern country, even though all VoIP traffic (Skype, Yahoo!, MSN, PC-PC or PC-Phone) was blocked anyway, but now all VoIP and Internet traffic will be censored from next year, through out the country; currently some zones in the country like Dubai Media City, Dubai Internet City, and Emaar properties don’t have any censors in place as they’re managed by the new Telco ‘Du’. However now the TRA decided all Internet traffic will be going through a filtering proxy server to avoid giving Etisalat an edge.
Hey remember! the motto of Dubai is “The City that Cares”.
Muzammil
United Arab Emirates
So apparently everyone has to kow-tow to some unknown standard or be blocked. This is the future of the Internet. I wonder exactly how much information actually gets into these Middle East countries if they block tame blogs such as Dvorak Uncensored. Much of our coverage is about technology. We have never had nudity on our site and no porn. Language is moderated. We are only critical of things that are generally stupid, incompetent or bigoted. Apparently that is some sort of violation of cultural values in the UAE.
Link:
Etisalat Homepage
As of today (10-Dec-2006) this site is available from the UAE. I suspect some software saw “Uncensored” and censored it until a human found it unnecessary. I have seen this happen with other sites. Flikr was blocked for quite a while here until the last few weeks.
Yes, thats a good informative blog i find here.
and today i find a another good infomative site of horoscope and life prediction is
http://www.alkhaleejtoday.com
hi,
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