The article is basically saying that new rules are on their way to moderate the Kuwaiti blogosphere and will take care of or shutdown those blogs who publish stuff that goes against Kuwaiti’s traditions & moral values and it will also moderate the political blogs.
Before posting this I looked around on Safat to see if anyone’s beat me to this post, apparently Frankom did, you can read more there.
This is bad news.
For those of us who do not read Arabic fluently, Mishary, are there any specifics?
intlxpatr I wrote a tiny summary under the pics, that was about it. 🙂
oh and my name is Yousef by the way 😛
Well, there you go. This is the end of freedom of speech in Kuwait.
The internet is based upon freedom of speech. Whether it is good or not is left for the people to decide. But I guess the government is planning on doing that for the people.
I hate this shit.
Mako salfa.. People have Waaaay too much free time to check every blog on the internet!
Oh la la.. How about regulating my a$#! Al-wathan newspaper has been trying so hard lately to push the government to regulate the blogs, which I think is impossible. My blog is hosted in america and I’m currently living abroad! how are they going to force me from publishing naked pictures of myself?
I wouldn’t worry about it .. they can’t regulate blogs.
7achi fathi telga bas benaf3oon nas eb new sector tawtheef w mo 3arfeen shloon galaw nesta7deth qesem yedeeed moraqabat el internet.. agool san3aw wezaratkom bas
OOooooop, Yousef! I thought I checked the name. Oooops, so sorry 🙂
ummm they don’t need to regulate blogs.. they can just order them to be blocked by the local ISP’s.
Kha If the government really go after the blogs, I think we’ll have only a handful of blogs left in Safat.
::: ShoSho ::: They got nothing better to do.
BloBoz Block your blog so its no longer accessible from any local ISP. just like so many other good websites out there.
K.TheKuwaiti They’re gonna block the websites. and if it offends the wrong people, they’ll go after the blogger himself.
Hamad shakelhom min sejhom, coz ako bloggat bidat i6alli3 khyas’hom.
intlxpatr lol its okay 😀
Mark Exactly. Maybe they’re going to send warning emails first then have us pay fines for breaking the “law.”
you know, all what is left that they censor our underwears
Via AOL you can browse any website without the damn blocking 😉
AOL explorer acts exactly as if you are in the US.
fkj latesta3yel 3alarezgik 😛
Technogal err.. I can’t find the Mac version!
I saw the headline in Al-Nahar newspaper this morning, but they included an explanation (on the front page) that this will target blogs that seek to defame candidates running in the elections (I didn’t read the rest of the article). This seems fair, provided that the blog accuses candidates without offering proof.
But the explanation you mentioned from Al-Watan is troubling. What are Kuwait’s “traditions and moral values” to start off with? And shouldn’t freedom of speech be considered a moral right in Kuwait?
Thanks for the info..
YOUSEF, tag.
Its not going to be that simple .. If the MOT finds a blog that they don’t *agree with* .. then they need to first prove that the blog is either written by a Kuwaiti or from someone even in Kuwait (If you maintain a blog of that nature, stay quiet about your identity). Second, they would need to find a a legal reason to *block* them. Thirdly, the request would be submitted to the ISPs, who again check if the blog is doing anything illegal.
If it manages to go through all those steps and get blocked .. then a mirror (website clone) can pop up in less than 15 minutes. We already have several steps in place if anyone attempts to block the bigger blogs. It would take another month of two of bureaucracy before they even get around to the mirror.
You can not regulate blogs.
yaaaaa milgiiii yoom sar 3indena blog 6ala3 hal khabar !!!!
Haider Thats the thing, they left it hanging with no explanation as to what they consider morally correct in Kuwait and what is not? and thats clever if you ask me, coz it gives them enough space to work with and control the blogs. I hope its just for the reason you mentioned though (defamation of candidates).
intlxpatr wohoo! 😀
K.TheKuwaiti Look, I hope you’re right here, coz it didn’t seem to take them much time to get Bashar in jail when that thing happened. I’m not just worried about the blocking of a blog, but what things the blogger could go through if he expressed his opinion freely and annoyed the wrong people, especially now since they’ll soon have rules criminalizing whatever they find unsuitable.
*goes to read about mirrors*
master ba3ad ilgarada shloon 9ayra!? 😛
Yousef: I found the link for MAC OS http://macblog.aol.com
but I am not sure how it works with MAC! By the way to stop the blocking I was mistaken when I said use AOL Explorer, actually it is AOL 9.0 or 9.1 it is a package all in one software (email, browsing, XM radio, IM, etc..). Unfortunately it is only available for Windows OS.
Hang on, I thought they have long since been keeping tabs.
Bashar maintained a very public image on his blog, he was known by his peers (and the government). If someone plans on maintaining a blog that might piss some people off … just keep your identity a secret.
Technogal oh, thats ok, Thanks for taking the time and search for this thing. 🙂
2 b-log or not 2 b-log they’re always keeping tabs. but this time they’re adding rules to make use of those tabs 😛
K.TheKuwaiti yeah I agree. its a real shame that some of us need to keep their identity a secret in order to state his opinion freely. oh well.
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