DU Blocking makes the Local News

Yesterday, 14 April, a local newspaper reported that du has started blocking websites.

Samurai Sam reported this back in March. It's good to know that the local news keeps up with what's happening.

Samurai Sam specifically reported the blocking of Secret Dubai.

I first heard of Secret Dubai when a local newspaper reported that her site had been blocked in July, 2005. Once the block had been removed, I naturally looked to see the blog, but the parts she had been told were offensive had been removed.

The blog is mostly a news-clipping blog, taking stories from the local newspapers that Western readers might find 'interesting.' Or just weird.

A Citizen once told me how much all Citizens hated the blog. Although, since it is mostly just stories that have been published in the local English press, it isn't clear why they don't hate the local English press. Or maybe they do, but the local English press is owned by a Citizen, while Secret Dubai is posted on a blog owned by Google. And, of course, I have studied Group Dynamics, where, if one Citizen with wasta says 'Secret Dubai is terrible,' most other Citizens will agree.

Back in 2005, Secret Dubai had some Citizens who were her friends, and who got her blog unblocked, but they no longer seem to be able to help.

Blocking Secret Dubai makes absolutely no sense to me.

It is also unclear from Samurai Sam or the local newspaper if the block applies to all of du, or just to that new part of du that is outside the Free Zone. If the Free Zone must now go through the filter, I don't see how it can continue to attract the world's largest corporations.

Just Unblocked (for Now) and Semi-Blocked

On her blog, Secret Dubai has a link to a petition to unblock Single in Dubai. On his blog, samurai-sam reports that Secret Dubai is blocked.

Single-in-Dubai was blocked last summer, but, when I went to check the status of Secret Dubai, I also checked Single-in-Dubai, and both Secret Dubai and Single-in-Dubai are unblocked, at least for now, i.e., as of midnight, 17 Mar 2008 (which would have been St. Patrick's Day, only the Irish moved it officially to last Saturday, since today is Monday of Holy Week ; however, the US is still having St. Patrick's Day today, since US law does not allow any week to be Holy).

Last week, however, the Gulf News (which does not put its comics on-line) declined to print the comic strip 'Dilbert,' semi-blocking it, since the TRA still allowed me to read 'Dilbert' on-line.

So it appears, prima facie, that the Gulf News deletion of 'Dilbert' ('sorry, this comic is unavailable today,' repeated all week) was another example of self-censorship, rather than official censorship, or the TRA would have concurred by blocking the website.

Yet another case where the UAE prohibition of Emerson's hobgoblins is operating normally.