May The Dolphin Be Unflogged: Paskistani Government Censors Texting
from the ignorant-sh*t dept
The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority has taken a bold new step in the censorship arena, compiling a list of words and phrases deemed "inappropriate" for texting. This list has been forwarded to the nation's mobile operators, making a brief appearance as a publicly-available Google doc. Although the public permission has been rescinded, a version of the list appears here (very probably NSFW, especially if someone is reading over your shoulder or if you tend to read everything aloud).According to a mobile operator representative:
"There are more than 1,600 words in the list including indecent language, expletives, swear words, slang etc, which have to be filtered. The filtering is not good for the system and may degrade the quality of network services-plus it would be a great inconvenience to our subscribers if their SMS was not delivered due to the wrong choice of words"To give you the gist of the forbidden texts, imagine George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV," attach nearly any other imaginable word to those seven, add a couple hundred euphemisms for masturbation, some drug slang and a slew of misspellings and you'll be in the general neighborhood. It's what's lying on the outskirts of this neighborhood where things get weird.
Athletes Foot. Defecate. Deposit. (Yes, I know, but I would imagine some Pakistanis still use a banking system.) Do Me is thwarted by removing a space, leaving Pakistanis with no word for "enclosed arena." G Unit. God Damed Motha Fucka. I'm saddened to see "sexwhore" is no longer permissible, as it has become my go-to texting phrase, especially when contacting immediate family members.
Famous STD gonorrhea narrowly avoids the ban, thanks to an apparent lack of reference material ("gonorrehea"). Of course, infection tends to lead to a burning sensation that also makes the "no-go" list: "smagma."
Got Jesus. (It's cool, though. "Satan" is banned as well.) Hobo. Hoser. Idiot and "idoit." Juggalo. Kmart. Kotex. Lotion.
Inveterate masturbators will be thrilled to learn that many variations have been banned (mastabater, masterbate, mastrabator) but the original, correctly spelled version lives on. Sadly, inveterate jokesters will have to make do without their precious, um, "pun tang."
Neon Deon. Rae Carruth. (Apparently, the Pakistani government has something against flashy/homicidal football players, not to mention the defunct XFL ("he hate me/hehateme")).
"Tongue" gets twisted as well, appearing on the list as "tonge," "toung" and "tounge." #1072-1074 are apparently intentionally left blank.
All in all, a very dirty and plentiful list. One can almost imagine the censoring group giggling childishly long into the night while coming (I KNOW) up with this list.
Many Pakistanis have taken to the internet to express their displeasure with having their constitutional free speech rights violated. Of course, officials are quick to point out that this censorship is "for the children."
Mohammad Younis, a PTA spokesman claims the ban was a "result of numerous meetings and consultations with stakeholders," and went on to point out that "nobody would like this happening to their young boy or girl."(Oddly enough, "Wuutang Clan" is forbidden, despite the fact that they are sporting an additional "u" and are distinctly "for the children.")
The spokesman also points out that they never thought they'd get caught:
Mr. Younis also added that the list was never intended to be distributed publicly and was only intended to be used for testing purposes.Supposedly the final version will be much shorter, leaving Pakistani texters only "partially censored" which is better than "completely censored" but still much, much worse than enjoying their right to free speech. Citing Pakistani court precedent, the Pakistani government representative helpfully pointed out that, like many "unlimited" data plans, constitutionally-protected free speech isn't "without restrictions."
All in all, this move sounds like a nanny-state circle****, presided over by officious ***hats with too much free time and way too much power.
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Filed Under: censorship, pakistan, texting
Companies: pakistan telecommunications authority
Reader Comments
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Re: I'll start...
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Re: Re: I'll start...
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At least I will still be able to say spanking little Muhammad.
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twat
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Re: Re:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiWQZhUmmRw
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sample Banned text
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for those good Pakis this is horrifying and I am sorry for you.
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Re:
When I read the first line I was expecting the following sentence to be about the USA. Unfortunately the US seems to be rapidly moving in the direction of "a backwards Nation governed by Religion."
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Re: Re:
When I read the first line I was expecting the following sentence to be about the USA. Unfortunately the US seems to be rapidly moving in the direction
of "a backwards Nation governed by Religion."
Your don't know what you're talking about.
The Establishment and Free exercise clause of the First Amendment bans theocracy, and even school sponsored prayer and creationism is impermissible in state schools.
In Pakistan, Islam is the state religion and there is capital punishment for apostasy and blasphemy.
Pakistan is a really evil and murderous nation. The government suppresses the Ahmadiyya heretical sect by legally enforced discrimination and active toleration of deadly violence.
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Re: Re: Re:
and yet it still happens everyday in schools across the nation, while religious texts drive women's health issues in public debate and the public secular definition of marriage.
So, while we're not yet Pakistan - we are far from safe from imposed religious views. Don't get me wrong, religion plays apart in people's moral and ethical compass and shouldn't be banned from public discussions - but trust me, it's begning to feel a lot like 1692 around here.
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I have needs.
Go.
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Freedom of expression
"Every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, and there shall be freedom of the press, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defence of Pakistan or any part thereof, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court,[15][commission of] or incitement to an offence."
All the censors have to do is say it's in the interest of the glory of Islam, or the integrity of Pakistan, and they're golden. So effectively Pakistanis really don't have any guarantee of freedom of speech. IMO it would be like if the US 1st Amendment said Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech unless they really feel like it.
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Re: Freedom of expression
Where did you get the ICE version of the Constitution?
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Re: Re: Freedom of expression
Not with a FOIA request, I'll tell you that much.
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Questions, questions....
The report also does not mention what happens when a censored word is found in a message. Is it removed, replaced, or is the messge simply not delivered (and in that case does the Telcom get to charge for it?).
So many questions - so few answers.
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Actually, you're in the "group giggling childishly",
As empirical practice, it's rebutted entirely by that the FCC for decades (and still in broadcast) forbid those 7 words and many others, yet America survived. Nothing wrong with semi-enforcing verbage that your grandmother is comfortable with. -- If you think otherwise, then just spew it in her presence.
2nd, if you had any grasp of how fast computers search and replace text, you'd drop it as an objection. If messages don't get passed on, that's the whole purpose.
3rd, why did you spell out "God Damed Motha Fucka", while asterisking "circle****" and "***hats"? You thereby acknowledge that some words are objectionable for mixed audiences, even while attempting to ridicule this "censorship".
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Re: Actually, you're in the "group giggling childishly",
2. In times of high volume, text messages get lost or delayed here in America, where there is no censor overhead. If you're suggesting that adding a find and reject routine to a system that already fails won't make it more prone to fail, then you're ignorant.
3. I'm glad "woosh" isn't a banned word, or I wouldn't be able to snarkily explain that you've missed the entire point.
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Re: Actually, you're in the "group giggling childishly",
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Re: Actually, you're in the "group giggling childishly",
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Re: Re: Actually, you're in the "group giggling childishly",
Yeah, loads of fun there.
Blue would complain that the chips are /stale/, the dip is too WARM and the /couch/ is lumpy. Then he would insult the host by complaining that the party was too /BIG/ and demand to be reimbursed for the gas to drive there because it was so /far/ AWAY.
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Re: Actually, you're in the "group giggling childishly",
As empirical practice, it's rebutted entirely by that the FCC for decades (and still in broadcast) forbid those 7 words and many others, yet America survived.
Nothing wrong with semi-enforcing verbage that your grandmother is comfortable with. -- If you think otherwise, then just spew it in her presence.
You are talking out of your ass, and no surprise.
The FCC policy only applies to broadcast media, and the Supreme Court has explicitly struck down attempts to censor indecent speech in telephone communication, see Sable Communications v. FCC (1989).
In Reno v. ACLU (1997) the court held that the indency standard was unconstitutional as applied to internet communications, and in United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group (2000) the court once again further rejected the government's invitation to censor cable television.
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Re: Actually, you're in the "group giggling childishly",
If she was still alive, she would have had no problems telling you to go fuck yourself.
Is that a form of "wont someone please think of the children?"
"2nd, if you had any grasp of how fast computers search and replace text, you'd drop it as an objection. If messages don't get passed on, that's the whole purpose."
Lets just open letters as well, and while we are at it lets just implant sensors in your head so those word dont even exist. Forget going to Kmart. (584)
some words are objectionable for mixed audiences.
By the time most kids are around 11 or 12, and maybe even younger, they know curse words. So once again and again and again, trying to protect them with systems wide censorship just doesnt work.
OOTB you're such a funny little character.
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Re: Actually, you're in the "group giggling childishly",
Hang on now... by your quotes around the word, are you trying to sneakily suggest the idea that this isn't really censorship without just coming out and saying it? If you're willing to take a position on the issue... is this censorship, or not?
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Re: Actually, you're in the "group giggling childishly",
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Re: Actually, you're in the "group giggling childishly",
And yet is laughed at elsewhere, everytime some bad, bad word is beeped over. So what?
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Easily Thwarted
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no
undetermined.
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Re: no
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http://outsports.com/nfl/2005/0301nflshopnaughtywords.htm
Or did Pakistan just copy the nfl's list as their starting point?
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Maybe the censoring body in question was given a budget and a certain length of time to come up with a list, and copy-pasted this the night before it was due.
I'm going to check this out.
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There's a good chance Pakistan simply copied that list and added 500+ Urdu phrases to it.
http://www.firstpost.com/living/pak-bans-dirty-texting-just-say-no-to-monkey-crotch-133379.html
That would explain the NFL references.
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A$$ KL0wNs rejoice !!
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WTF?
Hostage is filtered? Seriously? At least WTF made it.
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One day, young Jack came home from school having learned a new word: "Crap." But Jack's mom didn't like it when he said crap, and Jack got into trouble whenever he would say it. So, instead of saying "Crap," Jack started saying "Cow." Now, Jack gets into trouble whenever he says "Cow." Poor Jack; someday soon, he may not be able to say anything at all.
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It's a wireless carrier scheme
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There is a way around this!
Morse Code.
Just use Morse Code for all of those words (assuming the recipient can read it) and you have fooled the filters!
As for my choice of swear words:
Holy mother of pearl
and
Fungu.
Neither of them got on the list. I win!
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partially censored
I don't think anyone can be "partially censored" anymore then one can be partially pregnant.
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