MyAdhan Blog

Link: Twitter is Banned in Dubai

Following the arrest and subsequent release of the UC Berkeley student of journalism who famously “Twittered” the word ARRESTED to his friends and the US Embassy so as to walk out a free man the very next day, surprisingly enough, “Twitter” has now been blocked in Dubai. Any person in Dubai trying to access the site is greeted with a message that reportedly reads, “We apologise the site you are trying to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political, and moral values of the United Arab Emirates.” Well, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) might be something else but Dubai is certainly not in that league. In fact, amongst Arab countries, Dubai is known to be far more liberal both culturally and religiously. So why the fuss? In fact, a well-known hacker in security circles, Ero Carrera, even said that this is the first time he is in a country that feels the need to block a site like Twitter. He said he would have thought sites like MySpace would be blocked as well but apparently aren’t. With Twitter allowing broadcasting messages from anywhere, from mobile phones, looks like some governments are beginning to perceive the site as some sort of threat to their sovereignty. All said, Twitter continues to remain accessible through Dubai’s airport Wifi as also through the Apple iPhone’s Twinkle application among others.