UAE and Saudi Arabia to Ban Blackberry Functions

Attachment 362The United Arab Emeriates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia will soon be blocking some critical Blackberry functions if Canada's own Research In Motion does not hand over security codes to decrypt data sent from the devices.

The UAE will block email, access to internet, as well as instant messaging meanwhile Saudi Arabia will only limit instant messaging, commencing October 11th. Both countries claim that they need to monitor these services for "judicial, social and national security concerns".

Much digital content is already censored in the UAE, including many popular websites such as YouTube, where users are redirected to a message stating: "The website was blocked by Etisalat on instructions from the authorities because of the presence of adult content on the website which is clearly against the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the UAE."