Internet Censorship and BDSM

How to get in contact to/from regions where there is internet censorship


Last week Michelle was asked for advice by a follower on how to contact people to practice BDSM in Dubai.

As you probably know, Dubai (Middle East, one of the United Arab Emirates UAE) is one of the many countries where you can not see sites or “forbidden pages” - not only adult/sex related ("banned as activities against the perceived moral values"), because of their internet censorship.
I researched censorship in that area and found ways and tools to get around the blocks from those countries. Michelle then sent them to her follower.

Below are excerpts and links of what I have found. I am posting this small article for all the people around the world that don't know or need hints on how to get in contact to/from regions where there is internet censorship.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates

Telecommunications in the United Arab Emirates is under the control and supervision of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) which was established under UAE Federal Law by Decree No. 3 of 2003. From 1976 to 2006 the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) was the sole telephone and telecommunications provider for the UAE. And while there were exceptions for free zones and modern housing developments, for the majority of the UAE, Etisalat held a monopoly on business and personal telecommunications services. In February 2006 this monopoly became a duopoly when a new telephone company and Internet Service Provider, du was established to offer mobile services across the UAE and Internet and TV services to some free zone areas. Earlier du provided triple play services to free zone areas under the name Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), which is still its legal name.
...
Internet filtering in the UAE was listed as pervasive in the social and Internet tools areas, as substantial in the political area, and as selective in the conflict/security area by the OpenNet Initiative in August 2009. The UAE has been listed as "Under Surveillance" by Reporters Without Borders since 2008.
The United Arab Emirates censors the Internet using Secure Computing's solution. The nation's ISPs Etisalat and du (telco) ban pornography, politically sensitive material, all Israeli domains, and anything against the perceived moral values of the UAE. All or most VoIP services are blocked. The Emirates Discussion Forum, or simply uaehewar.net, has been subjected to multiple censorship actions by UAE authorities.
TRA instructs Etisalat and du to block parts of Wikipedia, all VoIP services such as Skype and SIP based services and some social networking services like hi5, Friendster, and all dating sites like Yahoo! Personals and Match.com. For political reasons, the entire Israeli internet domain, .il, is also blocked. Pro-Israeli content which does not use the "*.il" domain, however, is accessible (e.g. jpost.com - the website of the Jerusalem Post). A 2005 study, before du was established, also showed Etisalat sometimes block websites relating to the Bahá'í Faith.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_Internet_City

...du (EITC) announced that all of its traffic would be routed via the UAE's censorship proxy which blocks access to any content deemed 'inappropriate'. du had been previously blocking VOIP services.
While Dubai Internet City sells itself as a business-friendly environment with excellent low cost connectivity, the reality is one of a heavily censored internet with prices that are 5-10 times the price of connectivity in Europe or the USA. In addition to webpage censorship, it is speculated that a variety of popular social networking services are blocked. Cheap calls to the UAE are not possible due to a termination charge of around 17p UK, (around 30 US cents) per minute imposed by the UAE phone networks. Internet connectivity in Dubai is expensive; a 0.5Mbit/s home connection costs around 200 AED per month (about 45 USD). The minimum internet connectivity package available for businesses at DIC is a 2Mbit/s connection with a 6GB monthly limit for around 800 AED (180 USD). Bandwidth beyond the 6GB limit is charged at a higher pro-rata rate than the first 6GB.

The UAE proxy can be bypassed by various methods including by setting up a VPN to connect securely to a server in another country to reduce the amount of Internet censorship, with the advantage that UAE authorities cannot 'snoop' on the traffic. While the UAE may block access to the web sites companies providing VPN services, it is possible to arrange overseas accounts. Such options significantly reduce costs as VOIP systems can be used; for companies who require access to services or content that is blocked, VPNs are a necessity.

Useful links to get an idea of internet censorship in UAE

http://www.dubaifaqs.com/censorship-uae-internet.php

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2010/09/06/dubais-dubious-internet-censorship/

http://everything2.com/title/Etisalat+and+Internet+Censorship+in+the+UAE

http://forum.virtualtourist.com/Dubai-1857296-5-10136985/Internet-access-in-UAE.html


A tricky and difficult way to bypass internet censorship in Dubai

http://blog.plenz.com/2013-04/internet-censorship-in-dubai-and-the-uae.html

Easiest ways to connect freely to the internet in countries with internet censorship

http://12160.info/group/anonymous-antisec-lulzsec-ows/page/how-to-bypass-internet-censorship

http://anonym.to/en.html#info

http://www.vpnaccounts.com/blog/internet-restriction-in-uae-bypass-with-vpn/

http://www.vpnaccounts.com/

https://hide.me/en/features/censorship

http://rumyittips.com/how-to-bypass-internet-censorship-and-filtering/

http://vpn-account.com/

https://www.anonymizer.com/

https://www.hidemyass.com/

http://www.vagabondish.com/how-travelers-can-bypass-internet-censorship-vpn/

http://letushide.com/

http://inagist.com/all/460328969792143361/

http://www.hotspotshield.com/

http://vpncreative.net/free-vpn/

http://wikitravel.org/mobile/en/UAE

http://allofvpn.com/unblock-skype-in-uae/

http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Online-Anonymously

https://securityinabox.org/en/chapter-8

I hope that the above research will be useful for all of you involved in a way or another with internet censorship.

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Marco Belcastro Bara aka Marco Fegatofi 

Internet Censorship and BDSM