(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - "Sorry, the requested page is not available" is the message which appears on monitor when Saudi people want to get access to the sites that "Demands Saudi reform", "Towards a State of rights and institutions" and "Call of Saudi intellectuals to change in the political leadership", where it was blocked by Information Security Corporation of Communications and Information Technology, which is responsible for providing Internet service in Saudi Arabia, according to Al Jazeera TV.
Despite the "frequent contacts" with officials of blocking authority, Saudi people could not get access to the official comment to determine the reasons for blocking.
Like most authoritarian regimes, the Saudis were not very enthusiastic about the introduction of the Internet into their country, but after a pause, realized that the commercial and economic advantages outweighed the political risks. Nevertheless, the regime set out to censor the Internet in a comprehensive manner. Saudi Arabia has made the "13 Internet Enemies" list of Reporters Without Borders. But the rulers are also using the Internet to their advantage in efforts such as the Al-Sakina Program for Dialogue, which the Saudis use to combat al-Qaeda.
Internet censorship is made easier in Saudi Arabia by an extremely centralized Internet infrastructure. There are only two nodes that connect to the outside world, and all Internet service providers must connect through these nodes' proxy servers. There is no legal Internet access through any other means.
The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) oversees Internet censorship in Saudi Arabia. Unlike the Chinese government, which attempts to deny it is filtering by blaming lack of access on technical problems, the Saudis are open about their filtering. People who access a website that is either blocked or not pre-approved are met with the following message:
Needless to say, an Internet surfer who runs across such a message would not be anxious to reach such a site again, and would probably be wary of submitting a request to get it unblocked. The CTIC provides online forms for both blocking and unblocking requests. Tech savvy Saudis are able to get around the blocking.
End item/ 129
