TRA speaks out on ban of YouTube content

Abu Dhabi The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) justified the part ban imposed on YouTube content in an official statement released yesterday.

The content on the popular video sharing website came under the scanner when a cartoon, hurting religious and nationalistic sentiments uploaded on the site, resulted in heated public debate across the country.

Earlier in February, the TRA banned access to the cartoon clip, citing breach of prohibited content categories stipulated by them.

"The Internet Access Management (IAM) policy, published by the TRA clearly identifies prohibited content categories, which both UAE Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have published on their websites. Therefore, no content on the internet is blocked unless it breaches IAM policy", reads the statement.

"As for YouTube, the TRA has instructed to block "part of its content" that breaches the prohibited content categories of the IAM policy. However, there are clear and specific procedures to that, and both ISPs are compliant to these procedures", the statement said.

Speaking to Gulf News, an official said: "It happens that some things can escape the proxy, especially clips with tags like a cartoon which in normal cases do not need to be blocked. But when the authority receives comments or feedback on a particular case, necessary action is taken promptly."

"In such cases, we ask the ISPs to manually block the content", he added.

The prohibited content categories laid out by the TRA include gambling, pornography, content which is offensive to religions and terrorism related content.

Lieutenant-General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police called for YouTube to be banned a few days ago at a public function.

However, the TRA clarified no official request had come to them yet regarding the total blocking of the site.

The cartoon in question shows two young Muslim characters who are constantly coerced by elders to become suicide bombers. It has Hebrew and English subtitles.

Does YouTube have a bad influence on people? Do you think the website should be banned? Are you concerned about what your children view on the internet?

Your comments

I dont think youtube has to be banned... we use youtube as a mean of sharing our great moments here in UAE to our loves back home...
Juan Miguel
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 11:01

Because of YouTube I got my home based business and still helping me to see plenty of ideas. And, It also helped me to learn how to read and write arabic scripts. About kids, I have two but Its all under our control. In all aspects of life there is something beyond our control, but we must see the white picture of it.
Yani
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 11:00

I support TRA of blocking the YouTube content if it hearts religions and cultures. However I request TRA not to impose a total block becasue many who are doing on-line education with various other counries are dependent on YouTube for educational lectures like myself. If a total block is imposed it will be very difficult for my distance mode studies.
Shabir Zainudeen
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 10:40

The internet has become a tool for people to post unwanted and misleading facts. It is not possible for parents to allow kids to use the internet without supervision. You tube was a site where we could get loads of information. But now that too has been corrupted. It is a shame that the internet is being used for all the wrong reasons. I think sites with content which are offensive to religions and other negative content must be banned. Sites where information is hidden under clips named 'cartoon' etc. must be totally blocked. The internet has thousands of sites which provide information. Blocking certain sites will not make much of a difference to regular users. With most kids using the internet on their own it would be wise to ban certain sites.
Naina Nair
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 10:26

While screening offensive content is a positive step toward keeping a clean media channel, I still believe that the more important job is to actually fight and take down those who post such offensive materials and prevent them from even having a window to spread their poison. Are we doing anything internationally about that?
Wissam Halawani
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 10:25

For me, Youtube is a great information source, be it expert lecture videos, kids educational songs, learning a new language or having a great recipe. Maybe many objectionable videos have been posted in the same site, but as far as you are accessing only the good ones, that is not your concern. Objectionable contents can be banned, but if people have limited access to public libraries and other information sources, banning the whole site is really an unfortunate thing to happen.
Lekha
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 08:33

I think the internet is making our next generation lazy. They like to spend more time on the internet than other activities.
Mohammad Akhter Hassan
Dhaka,Bangladesh
Posted: March 12, 2009, 08:28

I'm an expatriate in dubai, but my opinion to this issue is that, i don't think youtube deserves to be banned. But i am still concerned about the children on what they see on youtube. I think the best thing is that, the youtube site will give restrictions in viewing videos when it comes to children sites, especially those related link videos. What's the case here is that, when searching for videos, youtube would not give you one video it will offer you more videos and these are the related videos which sometimes they are no longer kids-friendly. Youtube should limit the posting of videos on their site. To sum it up, it's too unfair for youtube to be totally blocked only maybe they need to review and put limits in viewing and posting of their videos, especially when children are in the issue.
Ameer
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 08:22

I believe the ban shouldn't be imposed against YouTube since for me majority of the site's content are very useful like for instance DIY, tutorials and How-To videos.
Renato
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 08:20

Please don't totaly block YouTube because sometimes we really need YouTube for downloading some clips.
Irfan
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 08:10

TRA took very good steps, I am with the banning of such websites, we don't have to look for such sort of content.I am an information security professional and we see lots of time wasted due to such content.
Adnan Ansari
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 08:08

I think YouTube is great fun
Dennis Arimpur
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 07:51

Yes. Youtube should be banned. The site cannot be visited together with family members as it leads to often bad content movies and vulgar videos. I welcome any such decision from the authorities to ban this site.
Abdul Bashir C. V.
Jebal Ali, Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 07:35

I don't think that Youtube needs to be banned. These inferior views on cartoons are just spread by people who don't understand what is culture and don't know the meaning of religion. My personal opinion, that distinguished people should also refrain from passing sneaky comments without verifying the facts. Islam is not a religion that can be defamed by sneak cartoons. Islam is always upheld by moral values and customs that has been passed on for many generations.
Kannan Vasu Pillai
Al Ain,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 06:49

Itis not justified to block the site completely due to certain people abusing the facility. However, any offensive videos could be reported to Youtube directly. In order to maintain customer satisfaction i am sure they would consider to remove any offensive videos. Blocking the site is not at all the right solution, think about how many people depend on this site for research, study, information etc.
Alex
Sharjah,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 01:46

Youtube should not aquire unbridled policy. Many things are offensive to other individuals. So they should be careful for that.
Yousuf Khan
Dubai,UAE
Posted: March 12, 2009, 00:43