The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is implementing an Internet censorship policy with principles anchored with religious and moral values that the country is practicing. Although censorship may prove to be beneficial in order to filter the negative effects that people might obtain from substantial access to online information, it may also be disadvantageous if the sites that the TRA is blocking are educational and helpful for the country’s citizens. Perhaps, blocking sites entirely that violates the values of the people is not the answer to the problem, rather it will be more advantageous if TRA regulates the amount and kind of information that the people may access on all websites.
TRA previously unblocked medical websites. Perhaps, the importance of medical and health knowledge was perceived by the government of UAE. It is not enough to block websites just because through a search, obscene words such as “sex,” “terrorism,” and the likes, have been highlighted in some websites. There should be standards and guidelines that the TRA should follow in order to ensure the Internet censorship policy would yield positive effects and not block the advantageous factors that people can gain from accessing the World Wide Web.
Yes, the religion and the values that UAE will be respected because it is their right, as an independent territory to practice a religion of their choice. Yes, there is a need to filter information that can be accessed in the Internet. This thought is guided by the increasing statistics of crime rates performed online. Thousands of criminal offenses reported that caught global attention includes pornography (and not just pornography, but also child pornography), information system attacks by third party (through hacking or sending spam and viruses to anonymous and innocent users), theft (credit card number theft, account transfers), rape and violence (through networking sites, criminals are able to get in touch with innocent victims who will be willing to meet with them, in the end they get drugged, raped, or killed), terrorism (sites about how to assemble a bomb, etc.), and other offenses that disregards values, norms, and mores, and endanger the lives of civilians.
Under these premises, the need for Internet censorship is framed. However, to ensure that Internet censorship policies are appropriate, TRA should follow a set of guidelines. There should be a planning committee that will determine what kind of Internet material or resources should be blocked based on the values, norms, and mores that UAE upholds. It should include materials or resources that are potentially risky, immoral, dangerous, etc. Moreover, the planning committee should also identify the scope of the regulation. This will answer questions such as cases with foreigners, adults, and researchers involved, etc. There are still special cases wherein sensitive issues need to be accessed due to a specific need.
Implementation should follow strict regulation and supervision, with continuous assessment and evaluation of changes that might be needed for the Internet censorship policy. It should be within reason, and it should also be open to the ideas and contributions of the country’s citizens. For instance, an academic institution is looking into opening sex education in the program pleading for internet access to educational materials and resources found online, TRA should make considerations. It is not healthy to block sensitive issues such as sex, circumcision, child birth, abortion, or any other issues all at the same time without arguing about the relevance of unblocking such instructional sites. This is so, especially because there are also other issues that should be accessed by the citizens in order for them to be knowledgeable and aware about current issues and trends, such as HIV/AIDS prevention, safe sex, the importance of circumcision, etc.
In general, UAE is not at fall for standing up for religion or moral values. The only concern is that policies that should be made in order to uphold religious traditions and practices as well as norms, morals, and values, should be reasonable. The Internet censorship policy should always undergo assessment in order to determine best practices, and identify lapses in the implementation and conceptualization of such policy.
