The UAE Censorship

Skype, Orkut, Twitter, Flickr and the Pirate Bay. This is not simply a list of some of the most popular dot-com sites on the internet; it is also a list of blocked websites within the United Arab Emirates. When a web surfer visits such a site an apology comes on to the screen explaining that the site has been “blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the UAE”.

If a website is offensive, why apologize for blocking it?

In the UAE, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, the agency that contracted with Secure Computing, is responsible for licensing, investigating hacking and network breeches, promoting e-commerce and fighting cybercrime in addition to a host of other Herculean tasks.