Update: Apparently, only a few sections of the site will face a blockade as per Arabian Business.

Place this one in the hypocrites file.

So the U.A.E is on a blocking spree again, this time it’s Facebook that gets the blocked tag. MySpace might be close behind. The reason being that the network contains lifestyle groups to which the country frowns on.

Now, let me get this straight.

You are investing billions upon billions of dollars into projects to attract people from all over the world, and from all walks of life, to live and work in the U.A.E, Dubai mostly. But you never mention anywhere in the real estate and free zone brochures that they will have to deal with censorship you put in place for the internet.

Of course, if they spend millions of dollars who are you to ask questions about their lifestyle? Right! But since you do not make any money from the internet, who the heck cares. That’s where their decisions will come to bite them in the a$$ one day.

You say that these sites are – “inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates” – OK, but you obviously have no problem in serving alcohol in your 5 and 7 star hotels {The SkyView Bar in the Burj-Al-Arab serves alcohol. Burj-Al-Arab literally means Pride of Arabs} Doesn’t that in anyway conflict with the “religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates”. I can’t stand the hypocrisy of these kingdoms where they turn a blind eye to something because they gain monetarily from it and then completely shun it because it does not benefit their bottom line.

Sites like Skype are blocked, simply because they hurt the monopoly and bottom line of the telecommunications company Etisalat in the U.A.E. There is another company called du there that is providing internet access but I do not know if these blocked sites can be accessed via their network. Obviously some people will just go ahead and use proxies, but a point will come when they will just say – This is stupid! and move out.

Thanks to CounterJumper for pointing it out.

About the author

Hyder has been blogging for the past two years on this blog. He started Weborithm, his web company, in 2007 and along with designing blogs and websites also releases various web related products.