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It's already been blogged by Dhofari Gucci, Angry in Oman, Jet Driver & Muscato and tweeted by @blu_chi.
Omantel have kept their pimp hand strong, and given the Dragon a slap.
The dragon finally got blocked. My guess is that the women kissing picture probably provoked enough people to email through and say that they don't like that. Due to the time-frame of the story, and the fact that it's a Saturday (meaning the abuse email account had time to fill up over the weekend) it's probably only just been done because the people that control the filters at Omantel just noticed it. Or perhaps the filters are automatic based on the number of requests for a site to be blocked. Who knows?
So what's going to happen now?
One of a few things I guess.
1. Nothing, it will stay blocked.
2. It will stay blocked, but the dragon will start a new blog.
3. It will get unblocked.
If you want to do anything to help in the unblocking - fill out the form and submit it, as it's likely that if Omantel censorship team keep getting requests they'll open it again. Unless, of course, an instruction from high up has been issued, and then it'll never get opened again.
Gotta love censorship, not.
However, as Google is fantastic, you can still read his blog here.
And if you have facebook, you can read all of his articles on this facebook page (which seems to be regularly updated).
le fin.
Omantel have kept their pimp hand strong, and given the Dragon a slap.
The dragon finally got blocked. My guess is that the women kissing picture probably provoked enough people to email through and say that they don't like that. Due to the time-frame of the story, and the fact that it's a Saturday (meaning the abuse email account had time to fill up over the weekend) it's probably only just been done because the people that control the filters at Omantel just noticed it. Or perhaps the filters are automatic based on the number of requests for a site to be blocked. Who knows?
So what's going to happen now?
One of a few things I guess.
1. Nothing, it will stay blocked.
2. It will stay blocked, but the dragon will start a new blog.
3. It will get unblocked.
If you want to do anything to help in the unblocking - fill out the form and submit it, as it's likely that if Omantel censorship team keep getting requests they'll open it again. Unless, of course, an instruction from high up has been issued, and then it'll never get opened again.
Gotta love censorship, not.
However, as Google is fantastic, you can still read his blog here.
And if you have facebook, you can read all of his articles on this facebook page (which seems to be regularly updated).
le fin.
Muscat Confidential gets blocked
Reviewed by Sythe
on
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Rating:
Reviewed by Sythe
on
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Rating:
MM,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the support for Muscat Confidential! Love the pic. And the easy circumvention link!!
Although of course Omantel don't feel a need to actually justify such unilateral action, I suspect it was that photo posted a couple of days ago of two women kissing that did it.
Despite, IMHO, it being a pretty tame photo, the connection between it, the story it accompanied about an Omani bi-lesbian, and the fact that the girls looked Omani, offended some people (I think a small minority of my readers) and it was probably enough to justify a block.
FYI, the photo has now been removed, and hopefully Omantel will unblock me as quickly as they did Community Queer last month, in response to emails requesting that they do so.
I'll also be making some direct representations to the powers that be.
So, thanks for the support.
People: if you want MC to be unblocked (especially now the suspect photo has been removed), just fill in the nice form provided by the Omantel net-censors!
Note: viewers from outside Oman are not affected.
Email the top man directly:
ReplyDeleteTo: chairman@tra.gov.om
Your Excellency Mohammed Nasser Al Khasibi,
I hope this email find you well. I would like to bring to your attention a very serious matter that has occurred today. The very popular blog Muscat Confidential ( http://muscatconfidential.blogspot.com/ ) was blocked by Omantel. I hope you appreciate that this will have many negative repercussions on the image of the Sultanate of Oman. Many international news agencies have been notified of this petty censorship of an innocuous blog and are planning to run stories that could harm the positive image of Oman as a progressive and open-minded country.
Your Excellency, I have every trust in you to take the necessary actions to remedy this situation immediately.
Best regards,
Shatti