The Gaping Holes In the UAE's Net Firewall

Barence writes "The United Arab Emirates has its own Chinese-style firewall to weed out pornography and other 'unsavory' content. But as PC Pro's correspondent has found out, the firewall has more than a few holes in it. ISP helplines routinely suggest proxy server software that circumvents the filters. Access to Flickr is blocked, in case citizens' eyes should fall upon a naked buttock, but The Pirate Bay, which 'offers a range of bottoms to suit every need, including midget and donkey bottoms for anybody having a really slow afternoon – remains blissfully undisturbed.' 'Ultimately, I'm quite glad the UAE's authorities block websites, and thrilled that they're so inept at it,' concludes PC Pro's writer. 'Just like everybody in Dubai, all they've done is made me a master of internet chicanery.'" Guess that depends how closely they're watching the evaders.

Comments

Next logical step...

[Abstrackt]

PC Pro obviously needs to be blocked to prevent people from finding out the firewall doesn't work!

Legal maneuvers

[rwa2]

I doubt the firewall is there to block access to porn. What they really want is enforcement (harsh).

Without the firewall, you might get away with the excuse that you happened upon the site by mistake, or via those corrupt western popup blockers.

If you go through the trouble of setting up a proxy or some other means of circumvention, then they could probably use that information to show your willful intent to kill kittens or something.

Having been to a few church weddings recently, it's apparent from the talk that marriage is just a way for religion to maintain control over something. And what better way than to control people than through the nookie supply? You get your nookie assigned to you through church or not at all. So it sort of stands to reason than religious groups are against prostitution or promiscuity or even just loose women... it pretty much cuts into their turf.

Re:Legal maneuvers

[rwa2]

Well, it was a bit tongue-in-cheek (rimjob! I mean rimshot! Thanks, Freud). But I'd like to think I could give you guys more credit for being able to draw the connection between pornographic filtering and religious law in a Sharia state, whilst also drawing parallels to similar efforts in our own great puritan country.

Re:Legal maneuvers

[Anonymous Coward]

How is this insightful and not flame-bait?

Yes, clearly all churches actively seek out forms of control. It can't possibly be that they feel that there is something sacred in the act of sexual expression. Nope, there can't possibly be any form of sacred or spiritual connection-- or at least the belief in such-- within sex via a religion. Nosiree-bob. None of that-there spiritualism or sacredness here. Just a form of control. Religions like to control people. That's what they do. They have no other motive whatsoever. I know this because a religion once told me that something that I wanted to do was bad. I didn't let them tell me why because they just wanted to control me. No control for me sirrah!

Re:Legal maneuvers

[rwa2]

Hey, that's cool... I think religion serves a very important role in community and society, and be a cherished part of a person's cultural background and upbringing.

I went to a Catholic international school when I was young, and they had an option for kids who didn't want to take the Christian or Buddhist classes to take a class on "Values". It would be kind of neat to have that sort of thing for my kids today. But of course the only thing I actually remember from that class is a picture of two girls sharing an ice cream cone and both are licking it provocatively from both sides at the same time.

Anyway, just a humorous observation I made to my wife after attending a bunch of different church wedding services. She was raised an atheist under the Soviet school system, and after listening to so many assertions from the pastor that "only through God can a man and a woman find happiness", this was the one answer that she was satisfied with :P

And yeah, you could fault promiscuous and unfaithful women for creating the conflicts that plague society, and monogamy is one solution for keeping things in order. But it would also be neat if some of us could evolve to the point where people wouldn't get so jealous of others, or treat women like property or livestock (as can still be the case in parts of the world), and demystify sexuality so we can get on to more intellectual pursuits. But yeah, we're not there yet.

Re:Legal maneuvers

[infinite9]

I'm glad you prefaced that comment with, "As a christian..." so I could just ignore the rest of it as brainwashed nonsense.

There's a problem with your thinking. A non-christian says that christians think this or that. Then a christian suggests that they're wrong. Then you say that my response is brainwashed nonsense. I'm a member of the group he was talking about. Doesn't it make sense to ask a member of the group what they think rather than jumping to conclusions?

I can tell you that you can't group christians together into a large group and say that they're all this way or that way. We have all of the problems that non-christians have. Some of us are smart, and some not so smart. Some have money and some are destitute. Some educated and some not. So you can't look at christians and conclude that they made the decision they made based on education or intelligence. It must be something else.

OF COURSE marriage is just another way for religion to control our sex lives.

Would it surprise you to know that i got married in the same government building where you pay speeding tickets? The bible gives some guidelines on how to behave. And the end result is that it's really just normal behavior that almost everyone else does, just within marriage. The church has no idea what we do, why, or how often. They don't ask and we don't volunteer the information. Not much control there.

In Arab countries the church IS the state and vice versa and they try to control every single aspect of people's lives - in public and in their own home. Fundamentalist Christians who would have their way would like to see the same thing here, only instead of in the name of Mohamed it would be in the name of "Jeay-zuzz!"

I can tell you that most christians *don't* want a theocracy, although most people here on slashdot seem to think otherwise. We also dislike islam as much as anyone else. There are certain things we'd like stopped, abortion for example, not because we're trying to force our religion on others, but because we look at it as no different from bumping off grandma for example when it gets too expensive to care for her. I'm willing to bet there are a lot of non-christians who are also against abortion. But we never hear about them in these discussions.

This entire situation is solely created by superstition and the church's power lust.

We have a set of beliefs. And these beliefs are supposed to be respected in civilized society. When was the last time someone called Islam or Buddhism a superstition?

As for power lust, I believe that the catholic church used to behave like an imperialist monarchy. But those days are long-gone. And no protestant church has ever behaved in that manner. So where's the power lust? It's certainly not here today. I'm free to leave my church whenever I like with no repercussions.

Just another example of why religion is the single biggest roadblock to the advancement of the human race.

Advancing to where? I would argue that we are indeed a roadblock on the advancement to destruction. Stay tuned... Watch what happens when the roadblock is removed.

But it least it helps promote it's own opposition and hopefully that opposition will continue to get smarter and stronger and we can wipe out this plague that has had our species mentally shackled for 2000 years.

Here's what's going to happen: We're all going to vanish. They'll lie and cook up some crazy reason why we're gone. Then things will get bad... really bad. You'll have one last chance over the course of 7 years if you manage live through it. If you refuse, you'll spend eternity regretting your actions.

I would encourage you to be open-minded about christianity. Why would so many people choose to become christians? Does it really make sense that they're all stupid? You've expressed

Re:Legal maneuvers

[Dorkmaster Flek]

If people get married and only have sex with this one person, all sorts of problems that plague society and individual people simply go away.

I hate to get sidetracked into a religious debate, but I was following you (and respectfully disagreeing) up until this line, at which point I promptly spat chocolate milk all over my monitor. Monogamy and marriage specifically may work for some, or even most, people. But it's not the only option available, and it doesn't work for everybody. If you honestly believe that we would solve all sorts of problems if we just got people to get married and be faithful, I think you're dreaming.

HIT SQUAD INBOUND

[y86]

Before posting something like this, this genius should make sure he is out of the country and is never going back. They'll kill him or send him to jail for "encouraging indecency" -- or maybe a stoning?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/04/dubai-kissing-couple-jail_n_524736.html

These whack jobs in Dubai and other Tyrant controlled governments have SLAVE labor. Like they are going to respect "freedom of the press".

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/11/dark_side_of_du.html

Piratebay Untouched?

[InfiniteWisdom]

A somewhat amusing juxtaposition of a line from this story:

The Pirate Bay, which 'offers a range of bottoms to suit every need, including midget and donkey bottoms for anybody having a really slow afternoon – remains blissfully undisturbed.'

against the other just a couple of slots down on the front page article

"Torrent-tracking site The Pirate Bay is currently unavailable as reports come in of co-ordinated police raids against file sharers across Europe.

Re:Heh

[InfiniteWisdom]

What is /. coming to?

Adulthood?

Re:I noticed the same effect

[Darkness404]

Exactly, and I guarantee you that if you walk around a college campus and ask incoming Freshman their first experience with networking it will almost always be related to getting past a block of some site in high/middle school. Ordinarily, few high school students would use proxies, VPNs, etc. but when they can use it to play games or get on Facebook...

Re:slashdot is a great way to alert the authoritie

[Anonymous Coward]

I am writing this from the UAE. I do feel that if the government here is not trying hard to block all except for VOIP which is a threat to their income. There are two big telecommunications companies that control all Internet access, and I found it very easy to access any site I wanted by using proxies but I faced more difficulties in trying to use Skype or other VOIP softwares so I really belive that it all comes down to money.

and by the way the population of the UAE is overwhelmingly expats. I have lived in Dubai for around five years. I have yet to live anywhere near a local person. I dont see them in any neighborhood that I lived in, I dont see them when I go shopping and I dont see them at my work in a large private company. they are less than 5% of the population and they live in certain areas and largely work in goverment jobs.