Saudi Arabia Bans Facebook 227
gandhi_2 sends in a brief Associated Press piece on Saudi Arabia's blocking of Facebook. "An official with Saudi Arabia's communications authority says it has blocked Facebook because the popular social networking website doesn't conform with the kingdom's conservative values. ... He says Facebook's content had 'crossed a line' with the kingdom's conservative morals, but that blocking the site is a temporary measure." Some reports indicate that at least some individual Facebook pages can be reached from inside the kingdom. There hasn't been an official announcement; the source noted above requested anonymity. Earlier this year when Pakistan and Bangladesh banned Facebook, it was over particular content — cartoons of Mohammed — and the Saudi ban may prove similar once more details emerge.
Re:yep... (Score:3, Informative)
Hmm, actually...
Just yesterday there was some "draw offensive depictions of Mohammed" thing going on with the explicit goal of getting them blocked.
I wouldn't be surprised if this was related.
Unbanned (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40166219/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/ [msn.com]
Why? Who knows. Does it really matter?
Internet Blackholes... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:yep... (Score:1, Informative)
Abdullah Hamed (www.indiesaudi.com) (Score:4, Informative)
everyone,
I am a saudi who lives in saudi and here is my point of the story.
Saudi's (communications and information technology) has a solution of the shelf that blocks pornographic sites automatically (we got VPN so dont worry we get our pr0ns).
This solution keeps its own database and that external database messes up sometimes and blocks stuff that should be blocked. google and secondlife were blocked before and were unblocked. Further more, political website and radical islamic websites are blocked as requested by the government for national security.
facebook's url that was blocked today was (www.facebook.com/home.php) but if you use (www.facebook.com) it works perfectly. so it apparent that the blocking was due to a mess up in the database of the off the shelf solution.
any questions? :D
Re:yep... (Score:3, Informative)
oil
Re:That's all good and well... (Score:3, Informative)
I'm sure the citizens of Turkey, Malaysia, Morocco, Bangladesh etc etc not to mention lots of moderate muslims happily living in the west would be very surprised to hear that. It's about as convincing as equating all christians with the Spanish inquisition.
Re:yep... (Score:5, Informative)
Bahrain is another "entertainment center" for Saudis. The joke in Bahrain is, "Allah cannot see across the causeway."
I guess now they can go there for alcohol, prostitution, and Facebook.
Re:No problem (Score:3, Informative)
Oddly enough, except for the difference in religion, they essentially hate the same things. They both hate:
1. Religious freedom
2. Freedom of speech
3. Intelligence and free thought
4. Creativity
5. "Elites" which are anyone who has half a brain in their head and uses it (as opposed to actual elites like the Saudi "royal" family which uses their inherited wealth to oppress people).
That is a very 4. Creative and 3. Intelligent stereotype. You sound like one of those "stick up your ass" elite types though.. the ones with half a brain and using it.
Blah, seriously man.. that sort of talk makes you sound worse than the group you are trying to pick on. The guy you replied to made a good joke. You put genuine thought into yours and boxed up an entire region to fit an outlandish stereotype that only exists in your imagination. Seriously, they both also hate cold winters!
Re:No big surprise here. (Score:3, Informative)
Because Saudi Arabia would be a liberal paradise if it weren't for US support?
Given that Afghanistan and Iran were some of the most liberal and progressive societies in the region before the US, UK and USSR fucked them over for oil and a military pissing-match, that may well have been the case. Had those nations not been destroyed, they may have had a significant positive influence in the region.
A lot of progressive movements in the nations around Israel, which were fairly strong early in the century, were also abandoned when the violence (enabled to a great extent by US and UK military aid) really took off.
It is, of course, entirely possible that the tyranny we see today would have emerged on its own without any foreign intervention, but that doesn't negate the fact that most of the tyrannical regimes in the region are directly traceable to Western sponsorship.
I'm starting to think that blaming the US is a religion in and of itself for some folks. I swear, I could say "looks like it might rain tonight"...
The US has done a lot of good and it's done a lot of evil in the world. If you're well and truly sick of it, move to Eastern Europe for a bit, where everything is Russia's fault in pretty much exactly the way that you describe.
What any of that has to do with cloud is rather beyond me. I personally blame bad weather on arctic lichen, Australian butterflies, and the eldest of all living men named Henry :)