People accessing Twitter from Dubai are getting a message that the site has been blocked because of its content is not consistent with religious, cultural, political and moral values of United Arab Emirates.

I do not see any point in banning a communication service like Twitter.  I agree that the content on some of the websites with user generated content can be inconsistent (to a certain extent only) with values and culture of few nations but Twitter does not  come into that category.

If Dubai can block Twitter, they might as well ban emails and IMs.  Twitter is just a more viral version of email and IM which reaches out to more people in a shorter duration of time.

Let’s see which service will be the next victim of Internet censorship.  It’s time now that some governing organization to be formed which should take care of freedom of Internet and raise voice against Internet censorship.  I love to hate these censorship agencies.

Wait, it is not only YouTube this time.  There are other services which have become victims of Internet censorship by the Indonesian government.  The list includes MetaCafe, MySpace, RapidShare and Multiply as well.  This was confirmed by a comment from an Indonesian user on the post about YouTube ban in Indonesia.  Here is what the reader by the name of “Mantosz” wrote:

As of today, not only Youtube but Rapidshare, Metacafe, myspace, and multiply are blocked by the indonesian isp. I don’t know when this will be over.

Mantosz, thanks for the update.  Yes, even we do not know when these totalitarian governments will stop censoring Internet.

Update: As of April 11th, Indonesia has lifted the ban on YouTube and MySpace. No information about others.

Reuters is reporting that Indonesia has asked the ISPs to block access to YouTube for hosting the anti-Quaran film.

Indonesia’s Communications and Information Minister, Mohammad Nuh, said:

If the film is not removed within two days, we will block YouTube in cooperation with Internet service providers.

Cahyana Ahmadjayadi, the director general for information technology has told Reuters,

Our efforts include asking Internet service providers to block access to YouTube. They have started doing it now.

Can anyone confirm whether YouTube is accessible in Indonesia or not? Whatever may happen, the YouTube blocking game continues.

It seems the world is competing over who blocks YouTube more often.  On Sunday, China blocked YouTube because of the Tibet protest videos being aired on the website.  The government of China wants to protect the citizens from watching what happened during the protest in Tibet against Chinese rule.

Apart from being the top video sharing site, YouTube seems to be getting another top title i.e. top most banned website.  In the past it has seen bans from countries like Turkey, Iran, UAE, Morocco, Iraq, Thailand, Brazil, Pakistan, India and Australia.