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back to article Great Firewall of Pakistan erection stroked with govt cash

The Pakistani government has taken the unusual step of touting for firms it thinks could help build it a nationwide content-filtering service capable of blocking up to 50 million websites. In a move denounced by privacy campaigners and some technology providers, regulator the Pakistani Telecommunications Authority published a …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Filtering words

    "Patiskany gove really suxs"...I'm sure the young people from Pakistan can "come" :-) with better creative ways to overturn the censorship :-D

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      do they think they

      Are so important they need this or is it just that they want to thought control the population?

      As with all Great Walls, they decay or they are torn down, eventually, Hadrians, China, Berlin.

      It's just a matter of time.

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    2. Peter Murphy
      Reply Icon
      Devil

      They'll be filtering words first, and filtering sentences later

      Sentences that contain sentiments unacceptable to the Pakistani government. Sentences like "India is okay" or "ISI is a waste of funding". Or worst of all, "Bangladesh is better off without us." [1]

      And you thought censorship would be about sex, drugs and rock-and-roll. More fool you.

      [1: if you don't have any idea what I'm talking about: here's a link:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Liberation_War ]

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Optional

    Perhaps we should boycott the tech providers that do stick their heads above the parapet....

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Parapets

    Seeing as this new Pakistani policy is almost certainly being implemented to appease that country's increasingly influential and demanding Islamists, companies such as Websense who openly oppose the policy are the ones who are "sticking their heads above the parapets."

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    1. The Man Who Fell To Earth Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Re: Parapets

      Websense's position is pretty hollow, since Websense isn't eligible to submit a proposal, unless Websense has suddenly become a Pakistani company. The RFP says "...the indigenous development..." & "This system would be indigenously developed within Pakistan...".

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  4. Usually Right or Wrong
    Facepalm

    What is all the fuss about

    Goodness me, these are their duly elected repressors^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H representatives honour bound to protect these people, and this is exactly what they are doing, protecting the people from being bombarded with stuff that they should not be allowed^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H have to see. All governments do this, Pakistan are just behind the curve and need to catch up.

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  5. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Big Brother

    No doubt, with "approved" gateways.

    Rumours abound that businessmen in China can buy "holes" in the Great China Firewall if they know the right techies. Given the endemic levels of corruption in Pakistan, I'm sure there will be similar capabilities offered on the sly.

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    1. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
      Reply Icon

      Re: No doubt, with "approved" gateways.

      Presumably the interwebs filter will not apply to government ministers after all they will need "approved" gateways to access to "international news" sources as part of their job.

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  6. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
    Joke

    China's Golden Shield

    Piss-Poor security if you ask me....

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  7. FormerKowloonTonger
    Devil

    Stick It To Islamic Penetration.

    It's maybe stretch to find any specific verse in their Koran mentioning the virtue of web hacking per se, but is there any doubt that it's OK to do that as far as we infidels are concerned? The Paki's just want to enshroud everything possible under Islam.... whatever they say.

    This would be an enticing new study-project for WikiLeaks....right? It's probable that Islamic taqiyya can be worked against these Islamists, Taqiyya works flexibly in several directions, right?

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  8. Alan Brown Silver badge

    This is a good thing.

    It tells us EXACTLY what kind of spots the leopard really has.

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