Bahrain's ISPs Must Block Google Earth

Bashar writes "A Bahraini newspaper reported today that Bahrain government, following the block of nude sites, have instructed all ISPs to block the Google Earth service, making them one of the few countries worldwide to block a major Google service that is used around the globe, and proving very effective. Here is the same news source, translated by Google to English."

And your surprised?

[elmerf9001]

Just replace "internet blocking" with "Islam"

Oh, well

[Infernal Device]

Meh, their loss.

Seriously, why is this a problem for anyone outside of Bahrain? If they want to remain stupid and ignorant, I say let them.

Harmonisation

[tepples]

Seriously, why is this a problem for anyone outside of Bahrain?

Because it encourages other governments to "harmonise" to Bahraini law. Remember that harmonisation is how the US got the Bono Act and how Australia got counterparts to the Bono Act and the DMCA.

Re:Censor

[StikyPad]

Because there's an imminent threat of attack from its own citizens?

And blocking Google Earth will thwart them?!?!

Bahrain is pretty liberal as far as theocracies go.. I'm surprised they've chosen censorship at all, but blocking Google Earth is particularly batty.

variation on the honeypot

[zogger]

that's my guess, a variation of the honeypot. They don't care about the vast bulk of the public seeing the maps, but they need a little winnowing action. They are interested in just a few people who REALLY want/need to see some critical features using the maps. the government there considers those folks "persons of interest". They are trolling for those guys to take the bait and try to circumvent their way to those maps.

Granted, still lame, ways around it, etc, but it is still my guess. Governments/regimes feeling threatened (or even think they are threatened) tend to throw various crap at the walls to see what sticks, even if 99% doesn't. This is a fishing expedition, not a censorship move..