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Pakistan Bans 1600 Words and Phrases For Texting

Posted by timothy on from the when-the-stakeholders-hold-mallets-too dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "In a move reminiscent of George Carlin's Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has handed down a ban on about 1,600 terms and phrases it has deemed obscene and told carriers they have seven days to block the words on their networks, or face legal action. 'The filtering is not good for the system and may degrade the quality of network services — plus it would be a great inconvenience to our subscribers if their SMS was not delivered due to the wrong choice of words,' says an official at a one of the telecoms. The list includes such words and phrases as 'idiot,' 'monkey crotch,' 'athlete's foot,' 'damn,' 'deeper,' 'four twenty,' 'fornicate,' 'looser,' and 'go to hell,' among others. There are also various double entendres included in the ban such as 'beat your meat' or 'flogging the dolphin.' Mohammad Younis, a spokesman for the PTA, says the ban is 'the result of numerous meetings and consultations with stakeholders' after consumers complained of receiving offensive text messages. 'Nobody would like this happening to their young boy or girl.'"

13 of 356 comments (clear)

  1. Looser? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's going to make giving instructions difficult. I hope no-one's working with an IPL over IM over there.

    1. Re:Looser? by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because its Pakistan I can't tell if they meant loser or if they were serious...

      As soon as I saw 'looser' on the list, I thought that they can't be all that evil. We do need a concerted effort to eliminate this example of stupidity. It seems rare these days to find anyone spelling "loser" correctly. Ignorant loosers!

      But seriously, this list seems a bit dubious to me. Why would a country so paranoid about having bad things said about the Prophet Mohammed only include Jesus Christ on the list as a blasphemy? Why would a country that was once a part of the British Empire (and as such, still has English as on of its official languages) have one word on the list with the British spelling "arse", and 71 words with the American spelling "ass"? Why would there be no attempt to include the deliberate misspellings, abbreviations and contractions that are typical of texters?

      It could be that they simply sourced a list of words from elsewhere, but it seems strange that they would not tailor it to their own country's requirements.

    2. Re:Looser? by Vastad · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why would a country so paranoid about having bad things said about the Prophet Mohammed only include Jesus Christ on the list as a blasphemy

      Ummm...because if they censored the words "Prophet" and/or "Mohammed", that would be censoring a pillar of the Muslim faith? How would the righteous and moral doublegood citizens of Pakistan discuss the most important person in their lives? Or is this a test....?

      Jesus is a prophet but not THE Prophet in Islam, so that's OK to make sure the infidels don't get to sell that silly concept outside of their strange cult.

      More importantly though, this is actually a good thing. Why? Because we can look to Urdu - the national language of Pakistan - becoming the source of an entirely new and titillating orgy of euphemisms and slang that will defeat this list and that can never adapt effectively to counter it. The authorities have unwittingly introduced chaos and creativity into the very evolution of their national language. In less than a year, I make a gentlemen's bet that there will be their equivalent of the Number 1 Top 40 hit by their equivalent of Justin Bieber or Duffy belting out lyrics about "big tracts of land" and "brown roses with small petals" that will have the older generation pleased at the agricultural bent of the song.....and the young'uns practically creaming themselves in laughter.

  2. Didn't work in China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pakistani users will have 1600 new euphemisms by the end of the week.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_crab_(Internet_slang)

  3. Darn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But what do they really think this is going to accomplish, other than invention of a new vocabulary?

  4. Controlling communication helps controlling people by Hentes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?"

  5. What could possibly go wrong? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Has something that wasn't a terrible plan ever been implemented by people who use the phrase "consultations with stakeholders" with a straight face?

  6. And this is one way language evolves by oakgrove · · Score: 4, Insightful
    This is fucking stupid for one simple reason.

    Kids and adults alike will just find new ways to say "beat your meat" "go to hell" or whatever in 3..2..1

    The censors cannot possibly hope to keep up.

    --
    The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
  7. Re:Hey now everybody chill by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's for the children! Right?

    Not in a country where it's legal for a 60 year-old man to marry a 4 year-old girl, mate with her, then throw acid in her face and stone her to death for not wearing a burqa.

  8. I applaud Pakistan by Jeremi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... for doing everything they can to ensure that the range of Pakistani euphemisms and double-entendres expands to ever newer and more creative territory. Let a thousand flowers bloom!

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  9. Re:Oh that's sure gonna work by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And as we all know from the early attempts of the MAFIAA to curtail the sharing of music by disallowing the names of certain songs to be part of a file being shared, people will invent creative ways around it. 1600 or 16000 variants, people will find some that will slip through and the info will get shared quickly.

    Censorship doesn't work. People route around it.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  10. Re:More list forensics by fnj · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Human rights? In a muslim theocracy? BWAHAHAHAHA!

  11. Grimly Amusing by Hasai · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seems no matter where you go and no matter how ludicrous the subject, "IT'S FOR THE CHIIIILLLLDREN!" always wins. :\

    --

    Regards;

    Hasai