Harvard study cites Saudis as leading Internet censor

Saudi Arabia denies its citizens access to thousands of selected religious, human rights and politically objectional web pages and to most gambling and pornographic Internet sites, a study has found

A report by Harvard University Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society recognized the Riyadh government as a leading Internet censor. Forbidden sites include entertainment, humor, religions other than Islam, human rights and pornography, Middle East Newsline reported.

The Saudi government uses software called SmartFilter, created by Secure Computing in San Jose, Calif., to block most of the pornographic, gambling and drug-related sites. But the SmartFilter software is also customized with blacklists provided by Saudi security agencies, the Saudi Internet administrators said.

Among the pages selected by security agencies are some that are critical of Saudi Arabia's political situation, like the Web sites of Amnesty International and the Saudi Institute, another human rights watchdog group. Saudi Arabia granted citizens Internet access in 1999. The kingdom spent the two previous years constructing controls so that all traffic would be filtered by the government and security services.

The report was completed with the cooperation of the kingdom's Internet Service Unit which controls web access in the kingdom. It said 2,038 out of 64,557 web pages requested were blocked by Saudi authorities.

In Riyad, the Saudi Council of Ministers has ordered a crackdown on satellite-based Internet services. The Cabinet said Saudi authorities would monitor the use of satellite dishes for Internet services and warned operators that their licenses would be withdrawn.

The report can be found here. Among the sites censored by the Saudis are:

AdventureAngling.com;
AlBushra.org (an Arab Roman Catholic organization);
Altavista.com's Babelfish translation page;
A--hole Magazine (sounds like a good title for the Saudis);
Anne Frank House (it figures);
St Luke's Church of England Primary School (Maidenhead, England);
Kings Langley Public School (New South Wales, Australia;
Macarthur Girls High School (also in New South Wales, Australia);
The Alzheimer's Association of South Australia (you think I'm making this up, don't you!);
O Globo Online (a Brazilian news site);
Conservative Christian Fellowship (a UK site);
Nottingham Church of Christ (another UK site);
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church (Peoria, Illinois);
The Coptic Orthodox Church;
Create-a-Fart;
Dictionary.com's translator page (can you believe this?);
Britannica Online's Women in American History;
Ernie's House of WhoopAss;
ESwimmers.com (swimsuits);
A Netherlands-based Holocaust reading list (again, it figures);
St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church (Tallahassee, Florida);
Pleasantview Baptist Church (Crowley, Texas);
Grace Bible Church (San Leandro, California);
Redeemer Lutheran School (Fort Worth, Texas);
The Mike Blur Archive of Punk Rock Flyers;
Fox Searchlight Pictures (the arthouse division of 20th Century-Fox);
Hecklers.com (I can understand that);
HIZBOLLAH! In ENGLISH?!?!?
Israel Defense Force (again, it figures);
IVillage.com;
LaughNet.net (who needs LaughNet when you have terrorist attacks);
The First United Methodist Church (Smyrna, Georgia);
St. Pius X Catholic Church (Reynoldsburg, Ohio);
Japanese Baptist Church (Norcross, Georgia);
The First Online Church of "Bob";
MyNippon.com;
Natural Muscle Magazine;
Nerve.com (ooooh! Naughty!);
NORML;
Nude Records;
New York Rock;
UK Committee for UNICEF (?!?!?);
Jefferson Airplane Loves You (a Japanese fan site);
Outdoor Bikinis and Swimwear;
Rolling Stone Magazine;
Seattle Community Network;
The Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society;
AtomFilms;
The Onion (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!);
Buddhist Books for Children (a reading list);
UsamaBlows.com (THAT figures);
Family Bible Hour (a Canadian ministry);
Quotez (a UK quotation reference site);
Evagelical Church of Czech Brethren (Prague, Czech Republic);
International Church of Prague;
Warner Alliance (AOL-owned Christian record labels);
Warner Reprise Nashville;
Warner Bros. Records;
Allentown-Pocono Bible Students Association;

and all manner of sites dealing with marijuana. A few of the sites on the list are offensive. But this is ridiculous.

George Will wrote of "the ideological pretzel of liberalism." Based on this list Saudiism is more like a Gordian knot, if you ask me.

Linked through InstaPundit. (Note: that hecklers.com link is dead. Maybe the Saudis intimidated them.)

P. S. Here's a link to Secure Computing.

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