Qtel said last year the blocked sites fall into three categories: pornography, political criticism of Gulf countries and anti-Islamic sites.
Some overblocking occurs, where an entire website is blocked because of a few pornographic pages or because they hosted adverts for dating sites. There have also been examples of blocks that didn't fall into the three categories. Last year, a page on QL was blocked that contained a discussion about censorship of images of pigs in a children's book. Eventually, the block was removed. A site competing against the Qatar tourism authority was blocked last year.
Last summer, I looked at the top 500 sites, worldwide, and tried to work out why some of them had been blocked. The main reason was pornography, with others being blocked that explained how to circumvent the Qtel filter. None were blocked for criticism of Islam or Gulf countries.
You have a point and right about it. If I look at it properly, is it Qtel that is blocking the site Or is it ictQatar that is controlling this? In my mind, Qtel would not be so foolish to block sites and make their name bad. But they have no choice I suspect, so leaving the Qtel name out is fair in my view. I think this is probably the real reason behind the name drop.
I think the important bit about the change is not the blue swirly bit, but the lack of any mention of Qtel.
Previously, every time someone clicked on a blocked link, they were told "Qtel did this to you", which can't have been very good for their public perception.
It looks much better than the old ones. It feels more modern and international in design... unlike the old ones which looks like some college kids' work. Makes Qatar look good though it is a blocked page. Hope to see more world standard art work from Qtel... they have been just too serious with everything. Borrrringgg.
William Boot: Caches, Proxies, Tor, VPNs are all ways to circumvent the filter. Some parents may even pay for some of these service for their kids not knowing what it does exactly. When your 12 year old World of Warcraft Player asks for your credit card number for one more $20 thing, do you really know what it is you're buying him?
better than the Turkish one which is simple red and white text saying:
BU SİTEYE ERİŞİM ENGELLENMİŞTİR
Telekomünikasyon İletişim Başkanlığı, 21.05.2008 tarih ve 410.01.02.2008-138746 nolu kararı gereği bu siteye erişim TELEKOMÜNİKASYON İLETİŞİM BAŞKANLIĞI'nca engellenmiştir.
Access to this web site is banned by "TELEKOMÜNİKASYON İLETİŞİM BAŞKANLIĞI" according to the order of: Telekomünikasyon İletişim Başkanlığı, 21.05.2008 of 410.01.02.2008-138746.
DOHA: Qatar Telecom’s (Qtel) banner for blocking prohibited websites from being accessed by Internet users in the country recently acquired a new face.
An official statement sent by Qtel to The Peninsula yesterday said: “The Controlled Access page has been reviewed and refreshed as part of a series of ongoing enhancements to the Internet Community Safety process.”
“As you will be aware, the communication landscape in Qatar is changing, resulting in changes to the way that the Internet is supported across the country. Qtel is working hard to enable this change, in collaboration with the regulator, ictQatar, and is keen to encourage enhanced transparency and consumer welfare throughout this process.”
The current page is quite a departure from the former particularly in terms of colour background though it conveys the same message. While the former page had the message written on white theme enclosed by red border, the currently used page has the note superimposed on a teal blue gradient background.
A shorter message and the removal of the Qtel logo as well as a new contact address are some of the changes that can be seen on the new page. “The process for requesting a review on online material is unchanged at the present time. Internet end users who feel a site has been blocked unfairly can contact [email protected] and request a review of the decision.
It looks like a crappy Powerpoint slide, and takes longer to load than the old one.
I think they're going for a more international feel since they've removed all reference to Qtel and Qatar. The only give away is the email address (which has also changed).
No qatari.....I fink the new one looks better....like way better. the last one was all red and shize. Every time I had the old one I thought I had committed a crime or something.
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idomeje,
Qtel said last year the blocked sites fall into three categories: pornography, political criticism of Gulf countries and anti-Islamic sites.
Some overblocking occurs, where an entire website is blocked because of a few pornographic pages or because they hosted adverts for dating sites. There have also been examples of blocks that didn't fall into the three categories. Last year, a page on QL was blocked that contained a discussion about censorship of images of pigs in a children's book. Eventually, the block was removed. A site competing against the Qatar tourism authority was blocked last year.
Last summer, I looked at the top 500 sites, worldwide, and tried to work out why some of them had been blocked. The main reason was pornography, with others being blocked that explained how to circumvent the Qtel filter. None were blocked for criticism of Islam or Gulf countries.
--nigel
I need to know the kind of sites that are blocked
ngourlay: LOL....
even the email says isp.net.qa .. not qtel.com.qa
You have a point and right about it. If I look at it properly, is it Qtel that is blocking the site Or is it ictQatar that is controlling this? In my mind, Qtel would not be so foolish to block sites and make their name bad. But they have no choice I suspect, so leaving the Qtel name out is fair in my view. I think this is probably the real reason behind the name drop.
I think the important bit about the change is not the blue swirly bit, but the lack of any mention of Qtel.
Previously, every time someone clicked on a blocked link, they were told "Qtel did this to you", which can't have been very good for their public perception.
It looks much better than the old ones. It feels more modern and international in design... unlike the old ones which looks like some college kids' work. Makes Qatar look good though it is a blocked page. Hope to see more world standard art work from Qtel... they have been just too serious with everything. Borrrringgg.
So all married man are poor!
“Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another.”
William Boot: Caches, Proxies, Tor, VPNs are all ways to circumvent the filter. Some parents may even pay for some of these service for their kids not knowing what it does exactly. When your 12 year old World of Warcraft Player asks for your credit card number for one more $20 thing, do you really know what it is you're buying him?
What's sad is that every 12-year-old in Qatar knows how to circumvent the filter, but most adults believe it protects their kids.
The search engine's keep caches of content, so it's not difficult to work out.
dweller: text is much better.
better than the Turkish one which is simple red and white text saying:
BU SİTEYE ERİŞİM ENGELLENMİŞTİR
Telekomünikasyon İletişim Başkanlığı, 21.05.2008 tarih ve 410.01.02.2008-138746 nolu kararı gereği bu siteye erişim TELEKOMÜNİKASYON İLETİŞİM BAŞKANLIĞI'nca engellenmiştir.
Access to this web site is banned by "TELEKOMÜNİKASYON İLETİŞİM BAŞKANLIĞI" according to the order of: Telekomünikasyon İletişim Başkanlığı, 21.05.2008 of 410.01.02.2008-138746.
i'll be the first to que in case you're going to share your secret to unblocked blocked sites:0) waiting....
Qtel changes look of website ban banner
Web posted at: 11/9/2008 3:54:1
Source ::: The Peninsula
DOHA: Qatar Telecom’s (Qtel) banner for blocking prohibited websites from being accessed by Internet users in the country recently acquired a new face.
An official statement sent by Qtel to The Peninsula yesterday said: “The Controlled Access page has been reviewed and refreshed as part of a series of ongoing enhancements to the Internet Community Safety process.”
“As you will be aware, the communication landscape in Qatar is changing, resulting in changes to the way that the Internet is supported across the country. Qtel is working hard to enable this change, in collaboration with the regulator, ictQatar, and is keen to encourage enhanced transparency and consumer welfare throughout this process.”
The current page is quite a departure from the former particularly in terms of colour background though it conveys the same message. While the former page had the message written on white theme enclosed by red border, the currently used page has the note superimposed on a teal blue gradient background.
A shorter message and the removal of the Qtel logo as well as a new contact address are some of the changes that can be seen on the new page. “The process for requesting a review on online material is unchanged at the present time. Internet end users who feel a site has been blocked unfairly can contact [email protected] and request a review of the decision.
I think qtel should strengthen thier graphics design team.
I think old one is better
old one have QTEL on top with bold letters.
and with red colour it looks like ban alret ;)
NEPAL
NEPAL
Me too, funnily enough, I've never come across this thing to bypass it! Meaning, all I do is, MSN, Facebook and Qatar Living!
Well I'm over 10 and I don't
I think they keep this page to get the small children out. I'm sure anybody over 10 knows how to bypass it.
okay, Ha-ha! do you guys wanna know how to unblocked those thingy? sorry, can't share it here.. perhaps interested people can PM me. xD
used to watch mangas in mega-video! but crap, they blocked it! and some music videos of the a-listers on youtube too!
cheers,
paul
Yeah, message3.jpg must have been the worst. So bad they deleted it straight away.
seems like they want to annoy you by waiting for it to load.
It does look like a crappy Powerpoint slide.
no message3.jpg??
It takes longer to load cos the new message file size is nearly 5 times bigger than the old one;
Old message = 26.41kb;
New message = 126.2kb;
You can see the old message in the form you're used to (inexplicably stretched and distorted) here; http://www.censor.qa
It obviously took a few attempts to create the final masterpiece as there are subtly different versions of the new message here;
and here;
It looks like a crappy Powerpoint slide, and takes longer to load than the old one.
I think they're going for a more international feel since they've removed all reference to Qtel and Qatar. The only give away is the email address (which has also changed).
No qatari.....I fink the new one looks better....like way better. the last one was all red and shize. Every time I had the old one I thought I had committed a crime or something.
The old one really makes you feel 'blocked'.
"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
lol Darude
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
But it had capitalization flaws, qatari. The new one consistently uses capital letters. That's an advancement.
the old one looked better!
looks heavy, does it take a long time to load?
loooool good looking blocking theme
stop visiting porn sites :)
i hate seeing this.. always giving me sighs... not again
haaayyy..
oops heres the picture
Im the one and only