Flickr is blocked again in UAE? I just heard that from SC. This is also confirmed here and here.
What the heck is all this about? Since I lived in UAE for few years, I know that Etisalat have this sort of stupid unexplained actions.
But anyway, may this slow down the UAE spam on Flickr ?
Honestly, if something annoys me on Flickr, it is two things:
- The unsolicited invitations I get daily from a ‘new’ group. And 99% of these new groups are coming from UAE. Yes, the guys are very active. I believe they hold the biggest community in terms of number of members and maybe photos sources, I admire that. But that is not a justification for the spam.
- The second most annoying thing is the meaningless addition of photos to groups that has nothing to do with the photo added. For example, I very often find some photos of “see my new car” thing added to say “Palestine Pool”, or “No To Terrorism Pool”. And again, 99% of the time, they are coming from UAE. What the hell has your '#$%?~' to do with these pools? It is so unprofessional and childish way of adding photos out of theme to a specialized photo pool.
Anyway, I hope they get the censorship lifted. And until then, here is a tip to break through (any) censorship (anywhere). Go and get used to use JAP or Privoxy and TOR.
I really wonder, how can the United Arab Emirates (UAE) seeks to establish itself as an economic and technological leader in the Middle East, encourages Internet use for this reason, and yet blocks its citizens from accessing a substantial number of Web sites?! (Read more from OpenNet Initiative Study)
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Haitham, the alternative proxies you provided are already blocked!
I’m honestly against using other proxies, as it makes me feel like an outlaw or something.
I’m truely ticked off, this is so sad. even if they wanted to prevent the bad behavior of some people, this is not the solution. censorship is never the right answer.
If someone is interested in the anti-proxy programs I mentioned, may contact me off line and I can manage to send him/her a copy of the software.
But feeling outlaw! I don’t think this is right. If the law I’m against is condemn by majority of human beings, then I suggest that adhering to that law is an outlaw, got my point?
Take it easy :-)
I’ve just sent them a complaint. Lets see how they will react first. I can always contact you offline ;)
I caught wind of the block yesterday, but was hoping it would re-open. A few days prior to that, someone told me it blocked for a few hours and was suddenly unblocked again. And on the invites, if you just delete the pm and not answer yes or no to the invite, you shouldn’t get them for that particular group anymore. The invite window will show you as already invited or a member not allow another invite to be sent. ;)
The whole blocking by Etisalat is hard to understand. When I complained I was sent the following email, yet its not hard to search for nude photos if thats your thing….Just go to google and do a search under image…..Bingo
Its hard to understand Dubai as if you live in certain parts of Dubai there is no proxy and no Internet restrictions…..
Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting eCompany.
Please be informed that we are unable to process the requested action for unblocking the site requested by you.
Reason : http://www.flickr.com - Nuditty (against policy)
Once again we thank you for contacting us with your query and looking forward to serving you in the future.
Best regards,
eCompany Contact Centre
Tel: 800-6-100 (toll-free)
Email:help@eim.ae
URL:http://www.ecompany.ae
Serving you 24 hours, 7 days a week
ive sent this page to the ministry and etisalat.
If you are uncomfortable with the laws and culture of UAE. Feel free to go back to Jordania as you call it.
Way to go etisalat, thanks so much .. As UAE nationals and loyal costumers, we APPRECIATE your effort in trying to PROTECT our YOUTH FROM anything that may offend our culture/beliefs/religion=D . IF YOU HATE IT SO MUCH AND YOUR SO DESPERATE , you have the following options:
- do it illegally by having some weird programs …
- Carry yourself and go somewhere were they support such exposures.
- there are dozens sites that could host your art, you could ALWAYS register and have people appreciating your work.
TRUE DUBAI IS OPEN TO LOADS OF THINGS and is ADVANCING but that doesnt mean we open our doors to anything that could offend us . BELIEVE ME I AM LOCAL AND I KNOW WHY THIS IS DONE AND I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND . again you can look into different alternatives if your that desperate!
UAE NATIONAL, flickr is not dirty by deafault! cause you make it sounds like that!! it is the way we use things, if Etisalat cares much then we shouldn’t have Internet perhaps, this way we will all be on the safe side and our youth will not be exposed to anything.
I’m a user of flickr and I’ve never been exposed to any obscene content, you know why? because I don’t look for such content, that is precisely the problem, people who seek dirtiness will always find it anywhere not only on flickr.
Honey SC. AND ETISALAT’S ACTION IS NOT CONSIDERED EVIL!
AND I never said that flickr is dirty , I am not narrow minded to generalize. and was that a joke or a suggestion about cutting of the internet?! The world wide web is wide , and it has it is good and bad contents and etisalat’s effort is to protect its youth by doing so . You might not see or agree with me and your point is respected and i somehow understand why your saying this but instead of dwelling on loosing flickr , and if you want to showcase ur work you could always do that in other alternative sites .. google , i am sure you would find many that would etisalat provide you with the same service as flickr but more artistic ;) instead of asking WHY AND ARGUING , if it is a problem to you , you should try to solve it ..
yet again ,
Okay you never been been exposed to such content .. and I am not saying every flickr user is looking for that ..what i was pointing out is that , it had always been like that now when it comes to flickr etisalat cannot block? if a site has a certain Criteria that may clash with our costums and beliefs than etisalat as the provider has the right to do so! There is some sort of censorship one way everywhere in the world! and if it is one way protecting our youth from such exposure than why NOT? There are alot of alternatives and sites that could host your talents ;) besides, TO ALL OF you whome THInk that etisalat is owned by the government please get your facts straight cos it is not ;)
YOU SAID DIRTYNESS COULD BE FOUND ANYWHERE NOT ONLY IN FLICKR , if you mean the internet it could be controlled ,because you might be wise and mature and wouldnt get exposed to this dirtness and but UNLIKE YOU other kids wouldnt have this selfcensorship. Parents trust etisalat with it’s service, and etisalat knows what is best for it is people and is obliged to meet those standards!
I LOVE YOU ETISALAT .. YOUR EFFORT IS HIGHLY APPRECIATED …
besides etisalat unblocked it once, and it started to eliminate and block only the users that had nudity and dirty contents. BUT it became so crazy and out of hand that it even started spreading and most of those users were supposedly UAE FLICKR USERS! so I guess they had to put the stop to it . And they achieved that, it is unfair to many .. I agree with you on that point but yet again there are OTHER O T H E R alternatives .
As far as I’m concerned, there are no alternatives to flickr. It is not just a photo uploading Website, people share great photos, you can put a photo stream on your Website, you can do a lot of things. Are you familiar with flickr? if you are you will know what I mean.
If they are going to block it 4ever then at least give me my photos back!
Almost no one blocks Google, and with tools like translate.google.com and cached web pages it is easy to overcome blocked sites.
Kindly help us to get Etisalat to unblock Deviantart.com
Please sign the following Online Petition
http://www.gopetition.com/online/10599.html
And please spread the word and tell everyone you know to sign it.
Your help is highly appreciated!
Thank you all in advance!
SO people i am doing this research about regulating internet what do you think should the government in any country limit the access of te internt in order to protect thier people??
yes
no
dont care
why do you think they should regulate?
why do you think they should not regulate?
thanks
Friends dont worry I live n UAE and using middlesurf software i’m really happy with the software to unblock all the websites you can check their website http://www.middlesurf.com
have fun
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