Saudis Crowdsourcing Internet Censorship
from the let-them-do-the-work dept
A couple months ago we covered the Chinese government's effort to create a crowdsourced version of their Internet censorship operation. Now, BusinessWeek is reporting on a variation of this trend in Saudi Arabia. As you probably know, Saudi Arabia maintains an extensive Internet censorship effort, but, in contrast to the Chinese model which involves tens of thousands of workers, the Saudis only employs 25 people. Instead, roughly 1,200 requests are sent in by Saudi citizens, about half of which are subsequently blocked by the authorities. Further, the article says that "only" forty percent of citizens say they are concerned about the censorship. However, one wonders why the censorship requests are even necessary -- in cyberspace, it is exceedingly easy to avoid content one doesn't want to see. If these users find certain websites offensive, personal blocking mechanisms could easily blacklist them, without disturbing the nearly half of Saudis who are nervous about the censorship efforts.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: censorship, crowdsourcing, saudi arabia
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Thru censorship wouldnt piracy come to an end? if not reduced?
" it is exceedingly easy to avoid content one doesn't want to see", theres a lot of content thats trash & unsuitable for kids, elders & software/media companies.
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Re: "content thats trash & unsuitable for . . . elders"
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You really don't understand this?
This isn't about the reporter not wanting to see it, it's about the reporter not wanting anyone else to see it.
It's a control thing. Like a previous poster noted - the puritanical impulse is alive and well.
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