blogger.com Reporters Without Borders today called on the Internet Services
Unit (ISU), the agency that manages Web filtering in Saudi Arabia, to
explain why the weblog creation and hosting service blogger.com has
been made inaccessible since 3 October, preventing Saudi bloggers from
updating their blogs.
"Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that censors the Internet the
most, but blog services had not until now been affected by the ISU’s
filters," the press freedom organisation said. "The complete
blocking of blogger.com, which is one of the biggest blog tools on the
market, is extremely worrying. Only China had so far used such an
extreme measure to censor the Internet."
Reached by Reporters Without Borders, the ISU recognised that it had
blocked access to blogger.com but did not give any reason. Blogger.com
is the point of entry to the management interface for all the weblogs
hosted on this tool. In other words, this is the webpage bloggers need
to access to update their blogs. According to our tests, names under
the <!–
D(["mb","blogger.com domain (for example, www.myblog.blogger.com) are not\r\nhowever being filtered. This means that Saudi Internet users can still\r\naccess the blogs hosted on this service.
\r\n
\r\nThe Saudi authorities acknowledge blacklisting more than 400,000\r\nwebsites. A very wide range of sites are affected, including political\r\norganisations, non-recognised Islamist movements and publications\r\ncontaining any kind of reference to sexuality.
\r\n
\r\nThe ISU (www.isu.net.sa) is the agency in charge of the Saudi Web\r\ncensorship system. It manages the gateway used by all local ISPs and\r\nis thus able to control all Internet data exchanges. However, it just\r\ncarries out instructions issued by the Saudi security services and\r\ndoes not itself decided what must be censored. The ISU offers an\r\nonline form and e-mail address (abuse@isu.net.sa) that allows Internet\r\nuses to report what sites they would like to see blocked. Hundreds of\r\nsuch requests are received each day and are dealt with by a team\r\nassigned full-time to the job. The ISU\’s filtering system uses\r\ntechnology acquired from the US company Secure Computing.
\r\n
\r\nBlogger.com is a service provided by the US company\r\nGoogle.
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
);
//–>blogger.com domain (for example, www.myblog.blogger.com) are not
however being filtered. This means that Saudi Internet users can still
access the blogs hosted on this service.
The Saudi authorities acknowledge blacklisting more than 400,000
websites. A very wide range of sites are affected, including political
organisations, non-recognised Islamist movements and publications
containing any kind of reference to sexuality.
The ISU (www.isu.net.sa) is the agency in charge of the Saudi Web
censorship system. It manages the gateway used by all local ISPs and
is thus able to control all Internet data exchanges. However, it just
carries out instructions issued by the Saudi security services and
does not itself decided what must be censored. The ISU offers an
online form and e-mail address (abuse@isu.net.sa) that allows Internet
uses to report what sites they would like to see blocked. Hundreds of
such requests are received each day and are dealt with by a team
assigned full-time to the job. The ISU’s filtering system uses
technology acquired from the US company Secure Computing.
Blogger.com is a service provided by the US company
Google.
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 