Pakistan Banning Social Networking Sites & BlackBerry

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If you don't yet know, I love my BlackBerry. And as such, I am subscribed to a BlackBerry fan website which gives daily updates and news regarding the entire smartphone world. Recently I read on this website that Pakistan has banned all BlackBerry devices until further notice, so being that I also love politics I looked further into it.

A quick Google News search told the story of Pakistan's apparent ban craze. They have recently banned somewhere from 500-1,000 websites including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr, and hundred of other social networking sites. The reason they used for these bans was centered around a so called "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day", something the users of Facebook thought up. According to infocera.com, citizens and students of Pakistan held protests against Facebook in response to this and the government, in turn, looked further into it.

Citizens continued to access the blocked sites using BlackBerry devices, so the PTA (Pakistan Telecom Authority) asked all telecommunication companies in the country to block BlackBerry services until further notice.

This idea has already seeped into other countries as well. According to Arab Times Online, the Ministry of Interior of Kuwait is planning on blocking BlackBerry Messenger Service (BBM) in the coming days. In short, BBM is an instant messaging service that allows people using BlackBerry Smartphones to instantly communicate and share media in real time.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Shawn

Censorship Paper

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Remember a few weeks ago I mentioned that English research paper I had to do? Well, I've finally finished it! If ya wanna take a look, just click here.

Make sure to comment and tell me if ya liked it!

Shawn

Weekly Roundup 05/03/10

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Some great stories this week! Here are the new ones:

Censorship...(05/03/10)- I highlight a very interesting site that posts the top 25 most censored/ignored articles of each year, going back to 1975. Click Here To View This Post

Change.org Weekly Update(04/27/10)-This weeks issue of the change.org newsletter.Click Here To View This Post

Fox News, Go Fu@k Yourselves (04/26/10)- Jon Stewart sticks it to Fox News. Thank God, someone had to do it.Click Here To View This Post

Amazing Baseball (04/26/10)- A very amazing video clip that shows some crazy baseball maneuvers... Click Here To View This Post

President Obama Announces Vote 2010(04/26/10)-I posted a video of President Obama speaking on the upcoming elections and their importance to keeping our super majority.Click Here To View This Post

Enjoy!

Shawn

Change.org 4/26-5/2

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In this weeks issue of change.org's newsletter, they discuss Race in America, Hawaiian Civil Unions, Craigslist's Sex Ads, Death By Texting, Ignoring Homeless Deaths, and Arizona's Police State.

It's a very good read, you can find out for yourself by clicking here. It'll open the newsletter up in a small popup window.

Rate this newsletter? Click the amount of stars you think it deserves!

Shawn

Censorship

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For a research paper in my 10th grade English class, I chose the topic "censorship". I've been doing some research and finding some interesting sites online, and I've stumbled across a nifty little site called Project Censored. According to the site...

we examine the coverage of news and information important to the maintenance of a healthy and functioning democracy. We define Modern Censorship as the subtle yet constant and sophisticated manipulation of reality in our mass media outlets. On a daily basis, censorship refers to the intentional non-inclusion of a news story – or piece of a news story – based on anything other than a desire to tell the truth. Such manipulation can take the form of political pressure (from government officials and powerful individuals), economic pressure (from advertisers and funders), and legal pressure (the threat of lawsuits from deep-pocket individuals, corporations, and institutions).

So they put a list together of the top 25 censored stories of each year, going back to 1975. They also provide updated news and real time stuff like that.

I encourage you to go check them out at http://www.projectcensored.org/!

Shawn