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أرقام وعوانين مواقع قد يحتاجها المواطن الاردني قريباً
Save this image. You might need all these addresses if the government starts intruding on freedom of the Internet.
SAY NO TO CENSORSHIP. Like this Facebook page NOW.
Why you need to speak up against censorship in Jordan
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
— Harper Lee, “To Kill a Mockingbird”
Censorship is wrong.
When you propose censorship as a solution, you are not declaring war against porn. You are declaring war on every citizen sharing what he or she thinks is better for Jordan — as well as the technologists who collaborate online, the volunteers who coordinate online, the makers who trade tips online, the people with diseases who support each other online, and the independent creators who use the Internet to earn their livings.
As a woman who has been making a living building the Arab World Wide Web for the past ten years, I am OUTRAGED at the notion of censoring the net. A significant number of us Jordanians have been working very hard since 1995 to put Jordan on the global map of innovation in building web communities, tools, platforms, businesses, and websites. When the government speaks censorship, it just feels like a personal attack against something we love very dearly.
Backwards laws won’t protect us, or protect our children. There are many other ways to try to ensure that children won’t access unsuitable material. Oppression isn’t the way to deal with problems; it is just a way to avoid dealing with serious problems that require real, imaginative action, and are not solved by banning words and images.
Don’t censor the Internet.
Speak out, speak up.
What you can do:
1. You can like this page created by a diverse group of Jordanians against censorship in Jordan:
https://www.facebook.com/NoInternetCensorshipInJordan
2. Spread the page among your friends and family.
3. Help spread awareness when someone says “But pornography is wrong” by pointing them out to freely available services that help moderate content from children. For more details on such services:
- Best tools to moderate content on the Internet
- Zain service for Internet moderation
- Orange service for Internet moderation
- Windows Family Safety Software
Keep the Internet in Jordan Free
I am totally dismayed by the Ministry of ICT’s recent claims that they will soon censor the Internet. I think Internet censorship will be the last straw to get me to lose hope in the future of this country. I can’t say it better than Ahmad though:
“The freedom of the internet in Jordan is in danger. A group of people are gathering signatures and talking to the government to “ban access to adult/porn sites” and the the General Secretary of the Ministry of ICT, Mr Khaled Al-Lahham, is praising them and promising them to do something about it!
They want Internet Service Providers to provide a restricted Internet “by default” and for those who want an unrestricted internet to ask for that and pay extra.
They are asking the Ministry to use some of it’s research and development budget (your taxpayer money) to implement this.
If this sound like a “neat” and “friendly” idea, think again!
This is dangerous. It is a first step towards a culture of censorship, restrictions under the cover of morality.
It is not the role of the Ministry of ICT to restrict access to anything on the internet. It is also not their role to instruct ISPs on banning policies. As a government official Mr Lahham has no business “praising and promising” them. The Ministry is NOT a moral policeman.
A free unrestricted Internet is one of Jordan’s most important freedoms. The internet in Jordan has been free from restrictions since 1995 (with the exception of one political site ArabTimes.com). This differentiated Jordan from the repressive countries around us, who have been described as “enemies of the Internet”.
The job of controlling access to the internet is the job of parents, individuals and companies. It can be an OPTION that Internet Service providers give to customers. Orange ALREADY have a parental control option that they provide.
Today these people want to ban adult sites. Tomorrow another group will ask to ban certain political or social sites. Do we want to become like some Gulf countries where even the photo site Flickr was banned?
And what about places like Facebook or Twitter, where occasionally someone would post an obscene photo. Do we ban Facebook and Twitter as well?
Dealing with online media is a matter of personal choice. For parents in is a matter of education and self protection.
Be very aware when anyone want to start “restricting”, “banning”, or “censoring”.
The internet in Jordan should be kept free.”
