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> 1500 SMS words might be banned in Pakistan
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The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority suggest that spamming filter should be installed at Telecoms operators to ban 1000 English and over 500 Urdu words. Period, Jesus Christ, Homosexual, Tongue and Deeper are words that will hinder the SMS message to be sent through
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Most countries have some kind of national security agencies responsible for keeping the country free from terrorists, child pornography, criticism of the government and wrong religious thoughts. Pakistan is probably no worse than other countries, but the recent suggestion by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority forces telecoms operators to implement a system which will ban SMS messages having any of the 1500 banned words in it.The official reason for the implementation of this SMS censorship is that a Pakistan regulation called "Protection from Spam, Unsolicited, Fraudulent and Obnoxious Communication Regulations, 2009". All operators must submit a monthly report to the PTA with the number of blocked text messages. The filtering will be executed through automated machine process without reading or disclosing content of intelligence by a human being.Some of the banned words are used in medical terms, religious terms and
LGBT words. According to Pakistan news paper Tribune some of the banned words are: Athletes foot, breast, condom, premature, herpes, deeper, finger food, hole, harder, devil, jesus christ, gay, homosexual and Wuutang.
source,
PTA Content Filtering Through SMS--
Posted: 2011-11-19 02:28:24
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athletes foot?
finger food?
would love to see the rest of the list.
cause just those two are mind boggling.
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Posted: 2011-11-19 16:32:46
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This is rather silly & would not happen here the human rights lawyers would have a field day for invading privacy
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Posted: 2011-11-19 22:03:35
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there's no privacy being invaded here. as the first post says...
The filtering will be executed through automated machine process without reading or disclosing content of intelligence by a human being"
and anyway, its not that much different from the US where recently the
House panel approves broadened ISP snooping bill and such provisions are also being discussed in UK whereby ISPs must keep records of all emails and other internet activity for a year.
and this action in Pakistan is a little less radical than that in India that I posted about recently where
India cap on text messages to deter tele-marketers
as a side note, the current proposed legislation in US to try to stop piracy is meeting huge resistance due to its wide scope for abuse. I haven't seen a single web personality agree with the proposed action and indeed most are very verbally against it. (
Anti-piracy bill meets Web-freedom backlash)
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Posted: 2011-11-19 22:20:41
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Some of those words are rather OTT though
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Posted: 2011-11-19 22:28:03
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OTT or not, its still censorship which is wrong.
I have no problem with governments being able to read and even log my messages, since i have nothing to hide and would never send confidential information via a sms, but to stop me saying specific words, thats just wrong.
Wouldnt they be better off allowing such words so they can track terrorism or other criminal activity.. ?
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Posted: 2011-11-19 23:30:19
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From looking at some of the block words, it looks like the government is trying to stop sexting.
I think that it's hard to judge from our point of view, living in a different culture but imo it sounds craaaazy, and is a complete violation of human rights imo. Could also be a bad thing for operators with a possible increase in services like bbm or similar apps for other smartphones.
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Posted: 2011-11-19 23:43:51
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So if I sent a message to my brother saying there's bomb in London what happens?? They knock on my door?? With the word bomb in my message. Or I went to see Jesus Christ Super Star last night
or I say to my girlfriend,tongue & deeper
where does it end??
[ This Message was edited by: Bonovox on 2011-11-19 22:49 ]
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Posted: 2011-11-19 23:48:04
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indeed, who are we to comment on a culture quite different from our own? it would be interesting to hear from Pakistani members on this issue.
from the reading I've been doing online, some are questioning some of the words chosen but most are more worried about the implications that the word lists can be expanded for the governments own reasons to prevent/reduce things such as propoganda
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Posted: 2011-11-19 23:55:52
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Enough people comment on our culture masseur dictating what we should or shouldn't be doing/saying. By the way what is Wuutang?? EDIT: Be interesting to hear from Ceaser on this on what maybe banned in India
[ This Message was edited by: Bonovox on 2011-11-19 23:02 ]
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Posted: 2011-11-19 23:59:34
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