Google: No Intention to Censor UAE's Internet

By: charles on 20 April 2009
Posted in United Arab Emirates, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), ONI, Social filtering, Internet tools filtering, Filtering tech and software

According to reports in Business Intelligence—Middle East, Google has no intention of engaging in an Internet censorship program with the United Arab Emirates.

Google admitted to having recently met with Dubai Police authorities along with several other “entities spanning government, business, and the public sector” to address UAE’s alleged calls for censorship of the Internet.

According to the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, the Dubai Police had asked Google to “restrict content that is pornographic, mocks religions, strengthens atheism, promotes new religions, fosters a feeling of insecurity or is unsuitable for young children.”

Dubai’s Chief of Police, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tanim, confirmed that he had wanted to secure censorship of upwards of 500 keywords on the YouTube site and had not excluded filtration of other sites.

According to Tanim, the drive for filtration was aimed at protecting young people, stating that “these key words open the door to online obscenity.”

No censorship plan has been agreed to at this point.