BlackBerry Ban in UAE

United Arab Emirates Bans BlackBerrys Starting in October

August 2, 2010

It's a good thing the ladies of Sex and the City 2 traveled to Abu Dhabi when they did. Officials in the United Arab Emirates — where Abu Dhabi is the capital — have Banned BlackBerrys from the country completely. Want to know why? Find out more, as well as what prompted the action after the break.

Apparently, the powers that be were not happy that they couldn't monitor how people were using their devices. Their solution? A ban, which not only includes BlackBerry devices themselves, but encompasses Internet, email, and instant messaging capabilities on the smartphones beginning in October. According to the BBC, the ban could be a way of pressuring RIM to release users' communication data "when necessary." So far, no news of any intended changes from RIM.

Miranda Hobbes wouldn't have made it a day in Abu Dhabi without her precious BlackBerry — and if Carrie couldn't have used hers to call home, who knows how the Aidan "situation" would have ended!

2 Comments

2 years 41 weeks

@Cameron Deckheart - do you live in the region? It's not about indecency or anything like that. Instead, it's pretty much an unspoken agreement: you live here and the government has the right to snoop in on your communications. In fact, they can read this post I am writing if they feel like it. Anything routed through the government proxy servers can be checked. This is why Blackberry annoys them - they can't get into it. They are certainly NOT doing this for the sake of keeping nasty things off the air or out of people's hands. Perhaps in a place like Sharja (which is part of the UAE) or Saudi Arabia - both notoriously strict - but Dubai and Abu Dhabi are considerably more flexible. Nope, this is about keeping an eye on what the population gets up to. I dunno if this ban will get anywhere. It looks like a bluff and the government is known to change its mind frequently. Also, if I look around at all the Emiratis brandishing Blackberries (it's a really popular device over here), I doubt this will last. Btw, even though SITC 2 took place in Abu Dhabi, it was shot in Jordan. The Emirates are not keen on showing a movie that has 'sex' in its title. Mind, I think you can buy the DVD here anyway.

2 years 41 weeks

I can understand their reasoning. Just look at what technology and too much sexual misconduct shown on television has done to Americans. Young people are out of their minds here. They don't know what true reality is. Too many people have been killed or hurt by all the gadgets as well. People cross the busy streets when they're not supposed too as their looking down at their gadgets texting. They ram into people on the roads and highways because they'd rather be dealing with their gadgets than driving responsibly. Jobs have been lost because Americans are too addicted to watching smut and playing virtual games. It's a sad reality but so true. Now yes, I do think the UAE and other middle east places can be TOO controlling. But again, I do understand why they band a lot of the things they do in their society.

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