Comment This isn't all that new. (Score 5, Interesting) 270
I lived in the Middle East for a very long time before moving out west. I recall that back in 1996 when the Internet started to get a hold of more pro-Western nations (Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar) that there was an outcry from the conservative, fundamentalist population. After 20 years of censoring Israeli and Jewish pictures from encyclopedias in local bookstores and pixelating television broadcasts containing PG kisses, they were appalled that the Internet gave access to such decadent material.
Since the only ISPs were the government-run telcos (Batelco, Etisalat, Qatar Telecom) censorship was rather easy to push. Websites that promoted blasphemy, Israel, anarchy, porn, warez, etc. were banned; sometimes hastily. The ignorant admins at these ISPs used a list of keywords to censor URLs due to the exponential increase in pornography. In fact, because of its very name, Hotmail.com was banned in 3 of those countrie for almost 2 months until they realized its innocence. Similarly, sites such as Whitehouse.com were made available for diplomatic content (for some time) but access was denied to Hotbot.com because it was too lewd.
The fines for visiting offensive material and / or finding ways around the filters ranged from about US$10 to ~$200. Of course, in '96 the ISPs charged about US$1.50 for each hour spent online. With that kind of sticker price and the reasonable likelihood of surfing onto banned websites accidentally, some kids started making international calls to ISPs in India and Egypt to get around the limitations. The ones who couldn't dish out the bucks stuck with private BBSs. It would have been possible to make quite a bit of money by meeting the demands of the people, but the risks (especially under Sharia law) are not to be taken lightly.
Since the only ISPs were the government-run telcos (Batelco, Etisalat, Qatar Telecom) censorship was rather easy to push. Websites that promoted blasphemy, Israel, anarchy, porn, warez, etc. were banned; sometimes hastily. The ignorant admins at these ISPs used a list of keywords to censor URLs due to the exponential increase in pornography. In fact, because of its very name, Hotmail.com was banned in 3 of those countrie for almost 2 months until they realized its innocence. Similarly, sites such as Whitehouse.com were made available for diplomatic content (for some time) but access was denied to Hotbot.com because it was too lewd.
The fines for visiting offensive material and / or finding ways around the filters ranged from about US$10 to ~$200. Of course, in '96 the ISPs charged about US$1.50 for each hour spent online. With that kind of sticker price and the reasonable likelihood of surfing onto banned websites accidentally, some kids started making international calls to ISPs in India and Egypt to get around the limitations. The ones who couldn't dish out the bucks stuck with private BBSs. It would have been possible to make quite a bit of money by meeting the demands of the people, but the risks (especially under Sharia law) are not to be taken lightly.
