Endangered Countries On The Internet

Vande writes "Balkanalysis.com has an article about Macedonia being driven towards internet extinction as a result of some blacklists, which also include Bulgaria and Romania. Namely, this poorly written quote from the 'export bureau' (non-gov org) states the reason for being blacklisted: 'Pay close attention to shipping or contact addresses located in countries with a high reported incidence of online fraud and many e-commerce web sites have found a high incidents of on-line fraud as well, such as Africa, Nigeria, Macedonia, Colombia, etc..' They must have lost the stats on fraud from Russia, Israel and the USA itself, because Macedonia's negligible internet population cannot possibly account for that much trouble. Cutting off an entire country only hurts the legitimate users. And I thought all this time I was surfing the 'World Wide' Web :/"

Comments

Depends if you're from the US, or "the rest"

[B747SP]

And I thought all this time I was surfing the 'World Wide' Web :/

The definition of 'world wide' varies depending on whether you're from the USA or someplace else. Who was it, the Monty Python folks perhaps?, who remarked that the key difference between the US and England is that when England hosts an international sporting event, they invite other countries. Could the same be said for the "world" wide web? :-)

Re:This may surprise some people, but...

[achurch]

Africa is not a country. It is a continent.

I'm not sure which to bemoan more--that that statement would surprise some people, or that the comment was modded Informative . . .

Obligatory

[Lehk228]

You would emigrate over Internet connectivity?

this is slashdot, most here would answer yes.

Re:Foreign ISPs

[Anonymous Coward]

People should seriously consider leaving countries where there isn't any hope of getting fair regulation of certain issues.
So why are there still people living in the U$A?!