Farewell, freedom
What exactly is the TRA's bone with Tecom? In five years of free internet access, has there really been some vast porn-and-Israel-fuelled surge in immorality in the free zones, leading to the breakdown of the precious UAE culture and society as we know it?
No. But nonetheless, the TRA has sand in its crotch. Perhaps it's the prospect of a programmer at Tech Inc being able to read FHM online? Or maybe it's the thought of a BBC journalist being able to access a site in the Israeli .il domain? Or possibly it's the image of some advertising exec updating their details on FriendsReunited?
Whatever the reason, the TRA has decided to wield the Great Axe of Proxy:
"Unlike etisalat, [Tecom] does not use a proxy server that can prohibit access to undesirable sites such as those featuring pornography.
"However, as part of the process to allow du to provide internet services beyond these zones, the TRA will introduce a uniform proxy server across the UAE."
Well, hooray. Finally all of us at Tecom can get away from our porn and dating sites and gay and lesbian information and VoIP portals and Israeli newspapers and start leading decent, desirable lives.
No. But nonetheless, the TRA has sand in its crotch. Perhaps it's the prospect of a programmer at Tech Inc being able to read FHM online? Or maybe it's the thought of a BBC journalist being able to access a site in the Israeli .il domain? Or possibly it's the image of some advertising exec updating their details on FriendsReunited?
Whatever the reason, the TRA has decided to wield the Great Axe of Proxy:
"Unlike etisalat, [Tecom] does not use a proxy server that can prohibit access to undesirable sites such as those featuring pornography.
"However, as part of the process to allow du to provide internet services beyond these zones, the TRA will introduce a uniform proxy server across the UAE."
Well, hooray. Finally all of us at Tecom can get away from our porn and dating sites and gay and lesbian information and VoIP portals and Israeli newspapers and start leading decent, desirable lives.
Labels: censorship, internet, tecom
20 Comments:
Heard this on the radio this morning - so we're going backwards not forwards. Do you think it will encorage more orgs like Reuters or CNN to come to Dubai?
Didn't think so - cutting off their nose to spite their face methinks
Without sounding patronising by using the age-old cliche..we should have seen this coming...it was only a matter of time.
With du getting it's paws into the country's telecom network, they had to have a uniform proxy server or risk etisalat clients jumping ship.
I wonder though, why couldn't they not use a filter for the freezones, and I truly wonder how international media giants like CNN and BBC will react to this.
Literally, in this age of moving forward with the times, we have ended up taking five steps backwards.
Just read about this on the UAE Community Blog, but nobody pokes fun at it like you do, SD. It's a temporary cheer-up for us before we join the Cult of the Blocked Sites.
Thanks TRA!
I'm going to buy a guillotine and sit in it.
“Well, hooray. Finally all of us at Tecom can get away from our porn and dating sites and gay and lesbian information and VoIP portals and Israeli newspapers and start leading decent, desirable lives.”
TRA doesn’t block israeli newspapers. They block the .IL domain as they block the .IL people to enter the UAE, guess why?
The following sites are some of the many israeli newspapers that anyone can access:
http://www.haaretz.com/
http://www.jpost.com/
http://www.ariga.com/
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/
It is indeed a sad day for all of us in UAE. Instead of the censor-free module of the free zones being adopted for the rest of Dubai, the reverse has been chosen.
I live in Bur Dubai and the freedom to surf the internet without hurting the religious, moral, cultural and ethical sentiments of the UAE was one of the reasons I was considering shifting to the free zones. But that reason will no longer exist.
The freedom to choose doesn't dilute society and its morals. In fact it strengthens them.
It is sad and it is backward to have any form of censorship. As investors review the attractions of being in the region, the exceptionally high costs, transport problems, telecommunications limitations on technology and now internet censorship means that more firms will look outside the UAE for a home. Do as I did and leave before it is too late and VAT comes in.
I support the proxy! But, I guess that was expected from me :P
Well, this was only a matter of time. DU hasnt started ops yet and etisalat already feels so threatened.. Nice..
The proxy isnt a problem though. Most tech savvy people in Dubai know how to bypass it anyways. I have access to whatever catches my fancy with just a few mouse clicks..
Great! Two of us engineers and my company will be leaving shortly! Then the military can wait for service...Plan on telling them why when we go....
They will figure it out when the expat experts bail out, and leave them to do their own work. Too bad Shaikh Zayed is not still alive to straighten out these dummies! Check out the UK daily Telegraph to see comments about this problem with advice...don't go there!
aaaaaargh! bastards! there are ways around it though, there are quite few ip-less portals i know of
Lady0nthetop...Contrary to what your comment above, CNN reports from their office in Dubai. Want a photo from inside the office? Check out the blog http://uaestudents.blogspot.com/ The staff gave us a tour and spoke about their commitment to telling stories from the region. They do excellent work !
So please don't embarrass yourself, and fellow bloggers, by making more ludicrous comments like all the office has is "a security guard."
This is definitely a newsworthy:
http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Society/10083915.html
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I can't believe no one has picked up on this story .
One can easily deduce how this poor lady has ended up in this state.
One thing, I always thought it took two people to commit adultery. What happened to the other one? Or was it a Jinn she had seduced?
Well, hooray. Finally all of us at Tecom can get away from our porn and dating sites and gay and lesbian information and VoIP portals and Israeli newspapers and start leading decent, desirable lives."
Although that I hate some of your remarks about locals like myself, nevertheless the way you think is really no different than most of us, or at least I. It is a shame that you are not citizen because we need more Emaratis like you. Finally, will you marry me (as a second wife of course)?
Eat salad, Du Du , poo poo ,
Dont worry folks captain marvel will save you, so you can surf to infinity and beyond via any website you like.
This country might be going backwards but technology keeps moving on , I use Ghostsurf which encrypts all the data
so the Eat salad proxy just see goobledegook instead of www.skype.com
and hey presto I love Dubai. Internet censorship you say surely not.
Reuters and CNN do have staff in their offices in Dubai, but nowhere near as many as the signage would suggest.
Same thing goes for the big corps in DIFX.
It's all PR, and pretty clever PR at that.
seems that, according to code.ae, noscript.net is also blocked. lets have people get more viruses, shall we?
Guys, "freedom to surf" ? You kidding !!!
Unless Du or any other rising tel company provides users with proxy-free connections average users (Like you) will never find a way to bypass it. NEVER !!! There are currently ways to bypass such stuff with ease, but I'm not sure how long are they going to be hidden in the dark. As for me, I've been exploiting the system since I was 17 years old & have no problems what so ever with censorship.
TIP: Use a proxy to do the trick.
Port 8080,80 are blocked, so I suggest using 444 & higher digit numbers (eg. 542214)
Cheers ; )
SeRAph
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