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Anonymous Lists Sites. and VoIP Services, Blocked In the UAE
another random user writes "A group of Anonymous-affiliated hackers claims to have gained access to the servers in charge of filtering Internet traffic in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to the hackers, they have identified a number of domain categories that are currently being blocked. These include websites that host adult content, VPN providers and any other site that could help users bypass censorship mechanisms, social media networks and dating sites, and ones that promote religious views other than Islam. The most 'shocking' discovery, as described by the hackers, is the fact that many websites that offer Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services are also on the list. 'A large part of UAE's population is made of migrant workers and the telecom industry made a lot of profit by overcharging them for international phone calls. But with the raise of VOIP and internet communication they were afraid that this would take away their profits and thus went ahead to block VOIP,' they explained."
Because if you block those for the majority of the population, productivity will skyrocket.
Was I supposed to be surprised!?
At least it is known that the filter is based on a blacklist.
Here's an easy fill-in-the-blanks template to deduplicate about a third of /. submissions:
"Western [social class] shocked at [tyrannical behaviour] in [undeveloped nation]. Allusions to widespread corruption cause outrage. [fingers|guns|nukes] pointed. [links to U.S. corporate interests] completely ignored. [someone else] should do something."
Yes, the UAE is a shithole run by fascist inbred swine. I think I figured that out by the time I started kindergarten. Perhaps we could figure out a way to extract the bad guys and paradrop them on a secluded island that is subjected to hourly carpet bombings. Or maybe tie them to a desk chair and force them to work for Joel Spolsky, but that seems cruel.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Do they also block 56k modems on landline? Because if you do not require the 1M+ scripts and CSS from your average web 2.0 site, you still can access most of the internet's actual content. You occasionally just have to wait for some jpeg to finish loading if you really want to see it.
Slashdot Editors Ignore. Strange Punctuation, In Headline.
A barbarian with lots of money is STILL a barbarian.
The Gulf Arabs still haven't gotten the memo.
...just to find some interesting websites to take a look at? :-)
I deploy there quite a bit, and there used to be only one option for phone calls, Etisalat. Before I learned about VPN services, I had no choice but to get screwed by them (it was about a dollar per minute in a prepaid cell card). Another company finally came in from Dubai (Du) but I am not sure what the rates are, as I was already using a VPN and never needed to use the cell. In any case, the UAE is the perfect hypocritical example. While the locals are running around doing whatever they want, non-locals are fairly restricted (unless you have money and knew where to go).
the list posted is also blocked in uae now!
Nice to know that this is the model that is being promoted in Canada, USA, and other western nations to protect us and our children from the bad guys, when it is really about protecting out-dated corporate business models and interests.
It is a shame that the vast ignorant masses have no interest in knowing that their plutocratic governments are screwing them over, in exchange for campaign contributions, cushy post-government jobs, lecture fees, and other perks.
this aspect of anonymous looks like a cia op again.....
and the backspin will be all govts need more control....
look at all the anti hacker crap in news sites last few days....
So many people are deluded into thinking Dubai is some kind of secular state, when they're really just another Islamic theocracy. Good for Anonymous for helping shatter that perception.
Seriously, when the most secular-appearing Muslim-dominated country has even less separation of church and state than even the most religiously conservative country of any other religion (Christianity included), the problem is Islam.
Fuck Islam.
Why is what a kleptocracy and dictatorship does "shocking"?
What do you think people there, or here, seek power for in government? So they can gain economic advantages by putting competition, forcefully, out of business.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Enable WebRTC in Chromium (about:flags), and use https://apprtc.appspot.com/. Here's the code if they block the rendes-vouz server: http://www.webrtc.org/blog/sourcecodetoapprtcappspotcomexampleappavailable
I personally want to see a list of sites blocked in the UK, because I really do not trust the IWF.
Esp. if they're like the Australian gov't who's leaked blacklist included Redtube and so forth.
Tools for censorship misused, news at 11.
10959 http://en.opensuse.org/
11772 http://www.slackware.com/
11189 http://qa.mandriva.com/
What on earth could they have against Slackware, OpenSuSE and Mandriva? There are other entries:
11304 http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/
11312 http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/
but these could be explained by being torrents. No Debian, CentOS or Mageia in the list. Strange.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough. - Blake
Anyone else wondering why the Unusable Amiga Emulator would block sites and VOIP services when reading the topic? ;)
How do I know this? I was using it from my hotel room about an hour ago...
LOL in Dubai at the moment and can't access the link because it is blocked.
Compared to other countries in the region the censorship is mild, the only website I would like access to that is constantly blocked is reddit/atheism.
It is an Islamic country and like all religious countries they do have some religious based laws. Also it is illegal to use non approved telephone services (eg external VOIP services) so really they are blocking what is illegal in this country.
I'm in the UAE LOL.
Time to fire up my trusty VPN software and check that URL.
The sheikhs of oil are cuddly and cute.
I was in Sharjah, next to Dubai when I went to check OKCupid a second time 30min later it was blocked. Up popped a nice little message:
"Access to this site is currently blocked. The site falls under the Prohibited Content Categories of the UAE's Internet Access Management Policy"
This was back in 2009. I also witnessed some young muslim girls take off their hijabs to stick their feet in the ocean. The police had arrived and were reluctantly enforcing the law in the presence of a religious man. The girls tried to make a run for it and the religious guy grabbed and held one by the hair!
Something like 17% of the residents are citizens. The rest are workers or tourists. It's a very odd place!
There is some sort of study tool for the bible. Many Linux distributions ship it.