Flickr IS blocked in the UAE!
Ooh! Look! I’m in the UAE!
Mahmood's Den
An Arab man's attempt at bridging the cultural gap and trying to make a difference. Failing a lot. Succeeding once in a while.
An Arab man's attempt at bridging the cultural gap and trying to make a difference. Failing a lot. Succeeding once in a while.
Flickr IS blocked in the UAE!
Comments
thats just sad… i understand why they would block political sites, and i easily see why they would block pornographic sites.. but flickr?! are you F#ΓβΓΒ€”ING KIDDING ME! :angry:
i am a student in Finland, and have been away from my home for a long time.. flickr has helped me stay intouch with Bahrain in ways that no other site can…
i hope they see the error of there ways one day…
What’s really their excuse for that? “We don’t have enough bandwidth”? Haha.
Now had this happened in Bahrain… all hell would break loose.
It’s the third or fourth time they’ve blocked it too /:
” it has been claimed that the reason the site was blocked was that “Sheikh Al Nahyan ben Mubarak ordered the website to be blocked after an unidentified person posted photos of female teachers working at a UAE school on it ” ( http://www.openarab.net/en/reports/net2006/uae.shtml )
It’s quite annoying having flickr blocked as many blogs use it for convenient image hosting.
I am Emirati and I will not be happy until every internet site is blocked, and only then will we live in beace.
How can you possibly know what sites are ok to visit and what are dangerous? The simple answer is you don’t stupids, you need somebody to watch you to make sure you are not corrupted by all the evils things in the world, especially zionism and the US of satan’s A, which is pure evilll (three L’s).
Do you have any idea how many countries have been destroyed due to not enough online censorship? Probably too many to count.
I guarantee once your child has seen a titty he/she is ruined for life and will probably become a terrorist drug addict with aids and also have the gay.
The above comment has to be satirical.
ibleez be seriouz, this blog is esbecial.
That means every child in existence is ruined for life. We have all seen titties – we were fed by one when we were toddlers. What did your mother use to feed you, a hose?
Why push a rock when you can go around it?
A hose ?!!! hehehe ,
But honestly I think there should be some restiriction,, SOME “Underline” I mean NO flicker ,,flicker is a far away to be blocked ,,, Blocking sites which leades to bad reflection on us (or probably our kids). like mahmood.tv π Just Kidding. No I mean like S*x sites should be open :devil: but not GAYS sites ,,,etc
Ali
Ali stop watching porn! Mwahah.
lol yes I was being sarcastic. Long live ze internet borno!
@Ali, who’s to say that gay websites should be blocked, but other sex sites are ok? When do you draw the line? What if I find interracial sex offensive too, should I ban that?
At the end of the day we’re all adults here, do you really want someone who is your age or even younger than you telling you what you can and can’t do?
If the argument is “for the sake of the CHILDREN” (as all b.s. mass hysteria arguments are), then the government should provide the CHOICE to the parents whether or not they’d like to opt for the censoring service. To e-babysit grown men and women is absolutely ludicrous, and an example of some of the backwater policies in this little Khaleej of ours.
Emirati, I think he means really kinky stuff. There are some nasty things online that promote rape or show porn involving children, in my opinion that is a line crossed and I wouldn’t so much mind if these were banned because who, other than really sick people, would actually benefit from these things? Even in the most liberal countries you will find such websites blocked, no one exactly is rallying for them to open up. They realize it’s wrong.
But average sex sites, I guess, should stay open and that falls under the responsibility of the parents to restrict their children as to what they can and cannot see online. So I completely agree with you above – we do have a choice, and we should exercise this choice. Kind of like when you buy cable, a lot of the time it comes with adult material, but there is an option which allows you to control and you can also control what your children watch by actually spending time with them rather than leaving the job to the television.
Also, in Germany, neo-Nazi sites get banned often (or always?) and I think the reasons are pretty clear. So many countries do draw a line … sometimes when it comes to sex, sometimes when it comes to extremist politics, other times when it comes to “super hazardous” sites like Flickr, haha. The internet is a huge medium and I think we would all rather that some sites get blocked – kiddy porn, unethical videos and embarrassing things published about others (posting naked pics of someone you know as revenge, etc.) It happens. So really it’s hard to draw the line.
Guys, before going off the track:
I believe that blocking can be for “political-economic” reasons,,, as the introduction of a new “image hosting” service in the UAE, that would divert the users of flickr in the UAE to such service – just a guess :tongue:
Anyways, another stupid move – well, they should ban google images if the matter was “pictures” π so why “UAE Teachers”? track the users who uploaded those pictures & “hunt them down” :getlost:
We live in a strange world…
Cheers! :cheerful:
Maybe some guy or girl posed naked and ruined it for the rest of the UAE. Doesn’t Flickr have terms of use that doesn’t allow any pornographic or obscene sets of images? I can’t possibly think of another reason why they would do this.
I wish we could just know their defense… “we were jealous of their traffic.”
Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if something like MySpace was blocked. I wouldn’t support it but I at least won’t be surprised. It still makes sense more than Flickr.
I’m in UAE right now.. it’s working fine for me π
Author
Well what do you know? It’s working for me in the business class lounge at the airport right now!
why? Does Flickr have nudity pictures or something like that?! I did not know that π please let me know in order to entertain myself π
it’s working all over the word!!!
Rayyash, way to rub it in!
Mahmood, maybe it’s just one ISP who blocked it… and others are on a different ISP? I know that in Syria sometimes the blocked sites appear depending on your ISP (and, apparently, it’s always the Kurds being silenced out there. Just a few days ago they blocked 3 more Kurdish news sites, but they still work in several places due to different ISPs.)
Author
Rayyash what are you doing in the Great Satan? :silly:
Esra’a, do they have another ISP other than Etisalat? Either way if it’s like Bahrain the blocking instruction would have been given to the Exchange which would have in turn pushed it out to all ISPs.
So you understand why pornographic sites are blocked ! well then this will make the explanation easier.
See you understand very well the culture in the Middle East and how people should respect each other, but what happened in flickr is that many UAE females posted pictures of themselves that is almost nude and seductive and most of those females are under age. Just imagine what might happened if someone trick them or something ….
I think you understand what I mean and this is only one reason.
I was addicted to flickr and it really shows how creative people are. It includes really talented people, but some other people are just stupid and don’t use it in a good way.
Author
So? The solution is to block this service which “really shows how creative people are” because of a few who – according to you – misuse it?
You need your head examined.
I think blocking all the gay and sex sites is not a good thing then people will look for other ways of having fun , whic can be more dangreaus. UAE is one of the most devoloping countries in the world . they should know tha fact by blocking all these sites , will not solve the problem.
Flickr is available in the free zones in the UAE, so the airport must be one of those unrestricted access zones. At home or anywhere outside the free zones (DIC, DMC, etc), we cannot access flickr and a myriad of other sites.
However, that is set to change soon. The Telecom Regulatory Authority which is responsible for deciding what to block on the Internet, has indicated that it intends to restrict access in the free zones too.
I remember reading somewhere that Reuters were very apprehensive about the intended restrictions in the free zones and were considering the viability of staying in Dubai if they couldnt get unrestricted access to the Internet. Which could be why the TRA is allowing some exceptions to the restrictions, in the interests of business. π
Well, seems that jeeran has joined the banned sites in the UAE. They’re claiming its a dating site.
Author
OF COURSE IT’S A DATING SITE.
The “most liberal government in the Gulf (aka one man show)” said so didn’t it?
How do you guys possibly belive UAE became a safe country, overnight?????
Safety and crime dont co-exist. criminals are not born and with these ristrictions crimes are also not made.
Try to get used to it.
This country gets what it dreams, what do free countries acheive?
Yeh they claimed jeeran is a dating site but after we contacted them and many of jeeran bloggers did they got that Jeeran is a social network not a dating site, and it was unblocked on Thursday 14/6.
Pleazzzzzzzzzzzzzz….so you can go to any good hotel in Dubai and find a prostitute thru contacts but they don’t want you to look at pics of various different things most of of them innocent?
Double standards much?
I’m an European citizen was working here as a general manager and willing to invest in UAE, but after reading the messages above i found that this country is still a backward country and i decided to come back to my country and invest for more civilized people . Anyway, thanks for showing me whats in middle east people minds
Are you back in Bahrain now Mahmood?
-Ibn
Author
Am indeed! back on Friday night and jumped right into a tornado of work!
Thanks for your hospitality my friend.
Mahmood,
Then let me take this opportunity to say what a great pleasure it was to meet you and Frances in Wash DC! I had a wonderful time!
It must’ve been hard for the both of you to fight off the jet lag – I remember looking at Frances in the rear view mirror when dropping you off and seeing how she was about to pass out from sleepiness! π
Anyway, great pleasure once again Mahmood, and be sure to send me those pictures we took together!! π
I managed to catch a horrible flu this past couple days as I am about to travel to NYC. Not good. I will be coming to Dubai this May though, if I have time, I will try to stop by in Bahrain if only for a day or two.
Yalla, ma3 salama Mahmood! π
-Ibn