In an unprecedented move, the Telecommunications and Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the UAE is giving users the opportunity to submit feedback over its filtering policy. Internet Service Provider (ISP) du, followed larger ISP Etisalat last year in blocking certain "offensive" sites, including Skype, a number of blogs, and information on the Dutch anti-Islam film Fitna.

Since March 22, 2009, Internet speeds in Burma have been slowed significantly. Myanmar Teleport (MMT) had announced that the submarine cable SE-ME-WE 3 (South East Asia Middle West Europe 3) will be undergoing maintenance from March 21 to March 25, 2009, but that email service would be maintained. Burma’s other state-controlled ISP, Myanmar Post & Telecommunications (MPT) has not announced any slowdown in Internet access speeds. However, according to Internet users in Burma, both MMT and MPT shut down their service for several hours on the afternoon of March 22.

Users of Facebook beware: In a precedent-setting decision by a Toronto judge, a man injured in a car accident has been ordered to turn over information from his Facebook page which is off-limits to the public. The lawyers of the lawsuit's defendant, Janice Roman, believe information posted on John Leduc's private Facebook page may be relevant to a claim he made that an accident in 2004 interfered with his quality of life. Leduc is now required to submit to cross-examination regarding the content of his Facebook page.

Dubai police chief launches a campaign to block youtube, less than two weeks after the UAE blocked access to content deemed offensive to Muslims.

Many a DVD collector over the years has been disappointed upon learning that their rare DVD from Taiwan or France can't be played on their American DVD player. Just as DVD region codes limit viewing to a geographic area, the geofiltering of web-based videos and other sites limits viewers from outside of a particular region from accessing them. This technique is often applied to the Web sites of television stations (such as CBS, Hulu, and Netflix in the United States), gambling sites, and dating sites, as well as a number of U.S. and other military sites, but appears to be catching on in other realms.

From January 18th until the end of the month, major Kyrgyz Internet service providers serving 80% of the nation’s Internet users were under a major hackers’ attack essentially leaving the country offline.