Kuwait Says Social Networks Must Be Regulated To 'Safeguard The Cohesiveness Of Society'

from the i-had-no-idea-it-was-at-risk dept

Apparently, an unregulated Twitter and Facebook might lead to society coming apart at the seams. At least that appears to be the somewhat ridiculous assertion of the Kuwaiti government as it prepares to regulate the usage of social networking sites, officially in order to "safeguard the cohesiveness of the population and society." Of course, that's silly. Social networking tools are used all the time to bring people together and to have discussions -- and also for less socially beneficial reasons. But the technology is just a tool for communication. By itself, it's neither good nor bad. Of course, given how those tools have been useful in larger protests and even regime changes around the Middle East over the past 18 months, one might guess that this new crackdown is a bit more about safeguarding the power of the existing government.
Hide this

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.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: crackdown, kuwait, social media
Companies: facebook, twitter


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • icon
    Josef Anvil (profile), 4 May 2012 @ 1:23am

    Seriously????

    All I could do was laugh as I read the article. We are talking about a region of the world where you can be incarcerated for tweeting an insult about the royal family of another country or about the a religious minority.

    Of course they need to regulate social networks. You can't repress your people properly if they are allowed to communicate freely with no fear of punishment.

    LOL That's the type of society they want to safeguard, scared sheeple. Good luck with that.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    tummyman, 4 May 2012 @ 1:23am

    yay!!! Iam the first one to comment!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    wins, 4 May 2012 @ 2:14am

    No one's

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    wins, 4 May 2012 @ 2:14am

    No one's

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2012 @ 3:28am

    Well so much for keeping folks updated on our Bacon Appreciation Society.

    (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2012 @ 4:20am

    not much interest because...

    It's Kuwait...haters don't care about Kuwait. Should have bent over backwards to include some keywords that would bring in more trolls and haters.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2012 @ 4:32am

    I'm so glad...

    ...we kicked Iraq out in '91 so that this form of freedom could flourish. The Arabs are the amish of that part of the world, determined to marginalize themselves.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      abc gum, 4 May 2012 @ 4:40am

      Re: I'm so glad...

      The American Taliban would gladly institute similar draconian measures in neighborhoods near you. Aren't you just ecstatic?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      ChrisB, 4 May 2012 @ 6:16am

      Re: I'm so glad...

      Some cultures aren't ready for democracy. Unless you have a strong dictator in place, they devolve into a bloody civil war (Iraq).

      Don't be fooled. These Arab Spring movements are not about democracy. This theme was created by Western media. It is about a global recession, government debt, and youth unemployment. Governments can enforce obedience (with the army), or they can buy it (with government entitlement programs). When 20-somethings are out of work, both Dictatorships and Democracies (Greece) will fall.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous, 4 May 2012 @ 11:46am

        Re: Re: I'm so glad...

        What research made you come to that conclusion? Please refer me to relevant literature. Thanks.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          abc gum, 4 May 2012 @ 4:00pm

          Re: Re: Re: I'm so glad...

          Probably heard it on hate radio, regurgitates it like he's doing everyone a favor.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2012 @ 4:45am

    same ol' same ol'. if you cant beat, stop it completely. if that looks like being to 'Iran-like a measure', then just regulate it. once this ruling gets into being, the others will follow a bit at a time until the ban is there anyway. like so many governments and rulers, these dont want people able to release information to the rest of the world or able to organise themselves.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    DannyB (profile), 4 May 2012 @ 5:26am

    Shouldn't we regulate the Telephone, Printing Press?

    After all, we need to protect the cohesiveness of society?

    Think of the children!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    BentFranklin (profile), 4 May 2012 @ 6:56am

    When they say cohesiveness of society, they mean cohesiveness of society to them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 4 May 2012 @ 9:06am

    OMG!

    It could lead to dancing!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Lord Binky, 4 May 2012 @ 9:22am

    I wouldn't be surprised if there were morality police and that social norms of interaction are applied to online intereactions so single men better not be adding females to their facebook, else those females will end up spider food in a dune somewhere...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    AzureSky (profile), 4 May 2012 @ 9:26am

    if it was up to me

    if i was in countrol of these sites, i would just regon block countries who want this shit link a page explaining how their gov dosnt want them to have access.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    FM Hilton, 4 May 2012 @ 2:19pm

    Cohesiveness-or repression

    The Kuwaiti government (like the Saudi) is very much aware of the popular uprisings in the neighborhood around them.

    They don't like the idea of their power being challenged, so it figures that they have to get rid of anything or control those things that might lead people to think for themselves.

    If unchecked, it will lead to events such as happening in Syria-mass murder by the government to stomp out any kind of rebellion. It may yet come to that, anyway.

    Absolute dictatorships have a nasty way of getting even with dissidents and other pesky people.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Anonymoose Custard (profile), 4 May 2012 @ 2:28pm

    They're not safeguarding cohesiveness of society

    It's the cohesiveness of the status quo.

    The inhibition of communication necessarily destabilizes societal cohesiveness. But preventing the proliferation of new communication maintains the existing level of cohesion.

    If they cared about societal cohesiveness, they'd make free and uninhibited communication the new status quo.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Rhino, 5 May 2012 @ 11:48am

    How ignorant... you cant just block it.. there is always away around it... it would be impossible to stop access to FB w/o disconnecting all access to the internet at large... Just a stupid idea to begin with...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mathew Carabello, 28 Jun 2012 @ 9:01am

    Networks

    Like to me, myspace connected us through music - Facebook is great for fam and friends, twitter to me is only good for following celebs, www.tumblr.com is great for making blogs, www.Formvote.com connects us through questions - they all have a purpose.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Niasandi Mcdonalds, 26 Nov 2012 @ 7:16am

    All I do was laugh at this tyoe of article where fb is making the world diverse they are thinking that it is harming people. All I can do is laugh ........

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.