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
2 comments:
Dear Shawn Webmaster, Another excellent posting on the blog. Thank you. If you have time , I have a request. Can you post the video of the Israeli attack on the humanitarian flotilla. The video is on today's democracy now. I am doing an email today about the OCPJ meeting scheduled for Wednesday June 9th at Maddy Shaw's home at 7pm. Maybe we could view the video then for those who have no compter access. Thanks, Mom Mom
I hope that not too many middle eastern countries follow this happening. Information is a powerful tool and weapon against this lockdown of personal freedom to surf the net.
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