Saudi Internet Censorship revisited..

[Orignally Posted October 02 2005]

I would like to congratulate their failed mission of censorship anyway since i am able to get unceonsored internet via various methods and sources ever since i made my first click on internet from inside Saudi Arabia

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Most of Kingdom’s Internet Users Aim for the Forbidden
Raid Qusti, Arab News
Source: ArabNews

(Comments in blue colour text)

RIYADH, 2 October 2005 — Of the estimated 2.2 million Internet users in the Kingdom, the majority regularly try to access forbidden or indecent material, Arab News has learned.
“Of those who log on to the Internet, 92.5 percent are trying to access a website that, for one reason or another, has been blocked,” said Dr. Mishaal Al-Kadhi, acting general manager of the King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).

KACST is not only the Internet gateway for the Kingdom but also acts as a filter for unsuitable material. The official said that pornographic material was one of the main items on the city’s “black list” which also includes gambling, terrorism and politics as well as anything contrary to Islamic beliefs.

He said that since the royal decree was issued in 1998 choosing KACST as the gateway for the Internet in the Kingdom and authorizing it to act as a filter, a special committee had been set up to decide what should and should not be inaccessible.

“A permanent security panel was established for this purpose. It consisted of members from 10 ministries, headed by the Interior Ministry,” he explained. A year after the panel’s establishment, 85 percent of the material on the blocked sites was pornographic with the remaining being what was deemed “inappropriate” for the Kingdom.

Asked why he thought many of those who access the web in the Kingdom were looking for pornography, Al-Kadhi said that he did not believe the Kingdom was any different from other nations in the world regarding this phenomenon. He went on to note, however, that a new dangerous tendency has begun to sweep the Internet: People “have shifted from pornography to pedophilia.”
Common sense, they were looking for online pornography more than other nations because they dont get to see their own women!!

He said that according to statistics from different countries around the world, there had been a global increase in the demand for pedophilia on the Internet.
So what, forget the internet, pedophilia happen in Saudi Arabia on dirty dark streets, behind shopping malls, in dark tinted cars, inside police cars and stations at night, rest houses and resorts, etc, etc, you name it, these are just few examples.

“Pedophilia has become a major problem in many countries. In Germany alone there are 30,000 people addicted to pedophilia and 20,000 others who are its victims. There is even a nationwide campaign there that asks people, ‘Do you like children too much?’” he said. He said that there was a similar problem in Italy too.

Al-Kadhi said that according to a Swedish official responsible for filtering the Internet there, “after Sweden passed new laws in the year 2000 aimed at preventing people from having sex with children, many had turned to their pets.”
Ok this offical is a responsible for filtering the internet, not reporting the social behaviours of their country. Then what this person has got to do with non-internet activities and why the heck an internet authority would waste time and money to research on what their nation is having sex with after child-porn is blocked????? This is a job of ministry of social affairs and such statement should come from them, not an unnammed offical responsible for internet filtering.
He said that these bizarre sexual preferences were being fought by the European Union with new legislation. “The governments of many European countries are now using ‘safer Internet’ from which this kind of material is filtered.” No they dont belive in babying their citizen by blocking and filtering the internet, but they rather fight it with education and intelligence. Thousands of people and pedophillia rings have been busted and arrested since the champaign started somewhere in 2001 (not sure)

He pointed out that many committees were trying to increase public awareness of the phenomenon. “We (officials in Saudi Arabia) feel justified since we blocked this kind of thing from the very beginning and will continue to do so,” he said.
Yes but you did not mention many other non-pornographic material blocked. Do website preaching human right, forigen worker rights, women right, social freedom and health also qualify as pornopgraphic??? what about Google SafeSearch??? why do your enforce Google SafeSearch they redirecting??

Al-Kadhi said that KACST had received the Asia Pacific Information and Technology Award for providing the best software to block adult sites.
No, they did not recive any such Asia-Pacific Award. But i will satisfy their optimistism for award by giving a "Shame on You 2005" award.

The system uses “Robots,” a program that automatically blocks certain phrases on an adult website and has an accuracy of 99.9 percent, he said.
Dumbass, take a lesson in O'Level Computing. Robots is a term for web crawlers used to index website on keyword basis for various purpose such as listing in search engine or inclusion in black list of a flitering software. Perhaps i can question the validity of your MIS degree now??? And now to the more serious part, KACST does not use any program called Robot, or even a software utilizing robots. You are using a software called SmartFilter made by a US firm Secure Computing. Just a common sense note, if KACST/ISU was using any program based on keyword indexing, the so-called roboting method, then not only thousand of websites on the internet would prove it by their access log but also it would be much easier to keep your website out of KACST block list - by simply blocking the KACST/ISU robot aka crawler.

Asked about the blocking of sites that promote terrorism, he said that KACST works only as a technical agency and that it blocks such sites when it receives an order to do so from the Interior Ministry.
And what about the websites promoting the terrorism under the so-called phrase of Jihad or supporting sucide bombing and acts such. Dont you count that as terrorism.

He explained that KASCT did not screen personal e-mails and would not do so unless it received a request relating to national security from the ministry.

Commenting on the blocking of websites which would permit Internet users to access information about other religions such as Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity, the official said that there were no laws to ban those sites but that KACST naturally made mistakes like any other group or organization.
But KACST is not suppose to block any website until an order form higher authority is recieved to do so, then how this can be counted as a mistake. You are contradicting yourself Mr. Minister.

He said KACST had ignored requests from many people to block all religious sites except for Islamic ones. Any person, he added, may fill out a request concerning a blocked URL and send it to KACST, mentioning the reasons why the site should not be blocked.
Well in the past and even in present as i recall, many non-islamic religious websites were blocked, even those who did not insult islam, islamic teaching, Saudi Arabia and its monarchs.


“The request is reviewed within 24 hours,” Al-Kadhi added. He said KACST was not to blame for the slow Internet dial-up connections in the Kingdom, adding that the problem was with the Saudi Telecom Company lines.
Atleast this is true. But i am sick of Unresolved Host Name errors even when accessing common websites such as MSN, Google, etc etc..and even ArabNews.. they are sure not because of STC, are they??? Please fix your DNS cache now!!