More than one thousand words have been banned by the Pakistani telecommunications authority and have put it forward for network providers to ban them. “It is a decision that has left many in Pakistan unsure whether to be staggered, amused or outraged. Social media sites such as Twitter have been flooded with posts about the decision” This quote taken from the BBC news website shows us that the people don’t know how to react to this action.
Floating online is a list with the words that have been banned. Majority of the words are sexually explicit. Within this list are also words that majority of people would not find the least bit offensive. The selection of words that have been chosen seems to be from on individuals perspective of what they find offensive. A lighter aspect of this is that the list has taught some Pakistani people ”rude words”.
It was bound to happen as Pakistan have blocked blackberry messenger service, taken control of Youtube and other forms of social networking /social media. My view is that they have gone “a bit” over the top, this is a SMS service were individuals can express themselves however they want. As it is a SMS no one else will be able to view the content because it’s sent directly to the individual the user has intended for it to go to. This seems to be a stepping stone for further rash actions to be implemented.
Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15793721
Governments have been doing this for a long time. In the UK its called CleanFeed, the system in run by BT to block images of child abuse. Whilst none of us here would disagree this is a good and very valuable system it is in its basic form censorship.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I am certainly for an open internet Differing countries have differing cultural sensitivities. I think the real question is why they brought the list in? Was it to quell a demand within the political party?
stopping what people say to one another on a SMS message is a bit over the top. Thats a personal message from one person to another. thats just like telling people not to speak and keep their mouths shut. have they never heard of freedom of speech. let people say whatever they want to say to one another.
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