Ever thought why we never mentioned about the Wikileaks app for the iPhone and the iPad? Well we knew that Apple is too pro-American government and will have it removed from the App Store. Guess what, that’s exactly what has happened.
Tag Archive: Ban
I hate it when decisions and actions are partial and biased. When you would allow one thing and pay no attention to another, when you block one thing and let the other run rampant. Today the social network showed the world that it operates at its own will by removing the entire campaign and impressions of Just Say Now.
The group has over 6,000 members on the fan page, generated over 38 million impressions in a short between August 7 to August 16. The reason? The campaign was about pot legalization in California and had the image of a pot leaf. The image of the leaf is associated directly to smoking and drugs and after a week of being there on Facebook was removed owing to it violating the social network’s policies.
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Looks like Research In Motion is having a tough time in the Middle East as the telecom sector has rallied up to put a ban on BlackBerry services. The ban has been implemented in the UAE as well as in Saudi Arabia, where the kingdom has asked 3 operators to ban its services. Those services include the BlackBerry Messenger, the E-mail and the BlackBerry Web Browsing services. This ban will be implemented in the kingdom in the current month.
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Google is getting some kicking in China and Pakistan by the authorities. I had been experiencing a block on certain Google Search Suggestions on random sites by the PTA and I kept ignoring this until I came across news from Cnet. While it’ about China extending its impenetrable firewall further.
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Boy o’ boy! It appears that things are set to get ugly after the Draw Mohammad Day controversy that surfaced last month and led to the social network being banned in Pakistan. The ban was lifted on May 31 and we thought the ugliness of the situation has been long hidden. Not really. Pakistan’s Deputy Attorney General has launched a criminal investigation against the social network’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
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While back in Pakistan, I was busy with the Cyclone threat from Phet that had been building up, China found itself blocking yet another website. This time it is the ever growing Foursquare and the reason for the block is Tiananmen Square.
The ban was initiated on June 4 as the the country was set to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the event when 3,000 protesters, which included students were massacred by the Chinese government. According to the law in the communist state, it is forbidden to discuss about the incident in the country and the Internet is to obey the same rules. The censoring of the site is not a new one, given that even Google obeyed the country’s law and kept search results in strict compliance to the government. Even access to Twitter was blocked last year for the same reasons.
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![image thumb86 The Lahore High Court Lifts The Ban On Facebook In Pakistan: Let May 31 Go Down As D Day In Pakistan’s History [BS]](http://startupmeme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/image_thumb86.png "image")
After Armageddon wreaked havoc in Pakistan’s online community beginning from the appearance of the blasphemous pages on the social networking site, Facebook and the ban imposed on it by the Lahore High Court, things will finally settle down. Why? Because we have finally got the ban lifted today by the High Court as was promised around ten days back.
Phew! I was already uttering this that the ban was temporary and there was no need to panic. But there were of course clouds of unpredictability circling the Cloud and had the ban been permanent we would have seen massive movement taking place within the country, fueled by increased frustrations and probably a mass immigration of the liberal class that was snatched the freedom of speech and action. Thank God for His mercy for giving patience to everyone to see through this ban period and the government of Pakistan finally favoring the lifting of the ban.
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After all the issues arising from the publishing of blasphemous content on the Facebook Page, to the Ban of the social network in Pakistan the authorities are loosening the grip on it and might soon lift the ban. However it will continue to block any and every link that connects to any blasphemous content. Sounds justified enough.
Honestly speaking you can’t the censor the Web, it is next to impossible given there is just way too much data out there, which is why the PTA blocked almost 800 sites in Pakistan, including YouTube and Wikipedia. PTA itself had stated that the ban was to last till May 31 but there was speculation that the ban would be last longer or might even end up being permanent, given that almost 70 percent people favored it. While there is still no confirmation on the date when the ban is officially to be lifted, we are just hoping that things like these don’t happen again, primarily from Facebook; which I think must exercise its terms and conditions appropriately.
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While the page might have been taken off Facebook, we in Pakistan have been without access to Facebook since May 19, largely. Why largely? Because there are other ways you can access the social network and while 70% of the population is in favor of the ban and another 15% accepts the ban till May 31 there is another 15% which is very disapproving of this ban. Why? Come on, you don’t want me to narrate the hues and cries all over again.
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I know many people in Pakistan were frustrated by the government banning access to YouTube and Wikipedia but there is good news for them all. People can access both the websites for now and I can bet everyone will be rejoicing this, I am to say the least. While this is good news for sure, Facebook still remains blocked, something that has made the liberals feels frustrated and left out.
I have no idea whether the accessibility is temporary or the ban has been lifted for good. But if you happen to be one of those detesting the bans in Pakistan, please do record and upload your video comments on the Online Video sharing site, chances are quite high that your view points might get a few hundred views of the 2 billion that YouTube gets each day.
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