Apologies all if this is the incorrect area to post this question.
Does anyone have concerns about the Google censorship of blogs?
Reason I ask is that the blog http://christforsaudi.blogspot.com/ appears to have been locked as a possible 'terms of service violation'
and yet the blogger has just (apparently) been writing about his
conversion from Islam to Christianity.
How can a topic such as this be a terms of service violation?
Curious...
I am wondering the same thing. From what I understand the Saudi
government blocked this site but I have no ideas why Google is
labeling this as a "terms of service violation."
> Apologies all if this is the incorrect area to post this question.
> Does anyone have concerns about the Google censorship of blogs?
> Reason I ask is that the bloghttp://christforsaudi.blogspot.com/ > appears to have been locked as a possible 'terms of service violation'
> and yet the blogger has just (apparently) been writing about his
> conversion from Islam to Christianity.
> How can a topic such as this be a terms of service violation?
> Curious...
I also wonder why Google is blocking the site. http://christforsaudi.blogspot.com/ was available two weeks ago, when I last viewed it. What has happened
since then to give Google a reason to suspend it?
> I am wondering the same thing. From what I understand the Saudi
> government blocked this site but I have no ideas why Google is
> labeling this as a "terms of service violation."
> Glenn
> On Jan 31, 7:30 am, DaveU wrote:
> > Hi,
> > Apologies all if this is the incorrect area to post this question.
> > Does anyone have concerns about the Google censorship of blogs?
> > Reason I ask is that the bloghttp://christforsaudi.blogspot.com/ > > appears to have been locked as a possible 'terms of service violation'
> > and yet the blogger has just (apparently) been writing about his
> > conversion from Islam to Christianity.
> > How can a topic such as this be a terms of service violation?
> > Curious...
We are wondering the same thing - why would Google be a part of
censoring a man whose only crime is expression of religious freedom
(some Blogger and Google should both strong in favour of)? Why would
they support such repressive action by the Government of Saudi Arabia?
It is very sad and puzzling to see these actions by Blogger and
Google. With all of the things one reads on blogs - how can this
possibly be a violation of Google's terms of service? Sad day for
Google! Even sadder day for this poor man. http://christforsaudi.blogspot.com/
glennpenner wrote:
> I am wondering the same thing. From what I understand the Saudi
> government blocked this site but I have no ideas why Google is
> labeling this as a "terms of service violation."
> Glenn
> On Jan 31, 7:30 am, DaveU wrote:
> > Hi,
> > Apologies all if this is the incorrect area to post this question.
> > Does anyone have concerns about the Google censorship of blogs?
> > Reason I ask is that the bloghttp://christforsaudi.blogspot.com/ > > appears to have been locked as a possible 'terms of service violation'
> > and yet the blogger has just (apparently) been writing about his
> > conversion from Islam to Christianity.
> > How can a topic such as this be a terms of service violation?
> > Curious...
I certainly hope that Google isn't caving into the demands of a
totalitarian government. The company should realize that Google isn't
the only place that one can obtain free email and blogs, and people
will "vote with their feet" if they aren't happy.
> Apologies all if this is the incorrect area to post this question.
> Does anyone have concerns about theGooglecensorshipofblogs?
> Reason I ask is that the bloghttp://christforsaudi.blogspot.com/ > appears to have been locked as a possible 'terms of service violation'
> and yet the blogger has just (apparently) been writing about his
> conversion from Islam to Christianity.
> How can a topic such as this be a terms of service violation?
> Curious...
Blogger is not censoring the blog. It was either caught up in a spam
bot (accidentally and needs to be reviewed reset) or it has some other
type of TOS violation that would cause it to be locked. Blogger
doesn't have time to get half the blogs it should pull off, much less
harmless ones. No conspiracy, just coincidence...the owner just needs
to go through the steps to get the blog unlocked (based on why it was
locked in the first place). They should have gotten an email or note
on their dashboard explaining the reasons and the procedure to have to
cleared up.
> I certainly hope that Google isn't caving into the demands of a
> totalitarian government. The company should realize that Google isn't
> the only place that one can obtain free email and blogs, and people
> will "vote with their feet" if they aren't happy.
> On Jan 31, 5:30 am, DaveU wrote:
> > Hi,
> > Apologies all if this is the incorrect area to post this question.
> > Does anyone have concerns about theGooglecensorshipofblogs?
> > Reason I ask is that the bloghttp://christforsaudi.blogspot.com/ > > appears to have been locked as a possible 'terms of service violation'
> > and yet the blogger has just (apparently) been writing about his
> > conversion from Islam to Christianity.
> > How can a topic such as this be a terms of service violation?
> > Curious...
Would be difficult for him to clear this up since he is jail because
of the content of this site. I just find it an incredible (and
inconceivable) coincidence that Blogger pulled this blogsite exactly
when the Saudis blocked it. Quite frankly, I do not believe you.
> Blogger is not censoring the blog. It was either caught up in a spam
> bot (accidentally and needs to be reviewed reset) or it has some other
> type of TOS violation that would cause it to be locked. Blogger
> doesn't have time to get half the blogs it should pull off, much less
> harmless ones. No conspiracy, just coincidence...the owner just needs
> to go through the steps to get the blog unlocked (based on why it was
> locked in the first place). They should have gotten an email or note
> on their dashboard explaining the reasons and the procedure to have to
> cleared up.
> > I certainly hope that Google isn't caving into the demands of a
> > totalitarian government. The company should realize that Google isn't
> > the only place that one can obtain free email and blogs, and people
> > will "vote with their feet" if they aren't happy.
> > On Jan 31, 5:30 am, DaveU wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > Apologies all if this is the incorrect area to post this question.
> > > Does anyone have concerns about theGooglecensorshipofblogs?
> > > Reason I ask is that the bloghttp://christforsaudi.blogspot.com/ > > > appears to have been locked as a possible 'terms of service violation'
> > > and yet the blogger has just (apparently) been writing about his
> > > conversion from Islam to Christianity.
> > > How can a topic such as this be a terms of service violation?
> > > Curious...
Glenn, you can believe what you want. I volunteer directly for Blogger
and I know that they have a very hard time keeping up with the blogs
that need to be pulled down because of serious TOS violations, so
randomly pulling one because of political reasons is very unlikely.
We have already reported the fact that this blog needs to be looked at
to see if there is a TOS violation or if it just got caught up in the
spam bot (which happens to lots of innocent blogs everyday). Hopefully
we will hear something soon as to why it is not showing.
> Would be difficult for him to clear this up since he is jail because
> of the content of this site. I just find it an incredible (and
> inconceivable) coincidence that Blogger pulled this blogsite exactly
> when the Saudis blocked it. Quite frankly, I do not believe you.
> On Feb 3, 7:23 pm, Mishka OP wrote:
> > Blogger is not censoring the blog. It was either caught up in a spam
> > bot (accidentally and needs to be reviewed reset) or it has some other
> > type of TOS violation that would cause it to be locked. Blogger
> > doesn't have time to get half the blogs it should pull off, much less
> > harmless ones. No conspiracy, just coincidence...the owner just needs
> > to go through the steps to get the blog unlocked (based on why it was
> > locked in the first place). They should have gotten an email or note
> > on their dashboard explaining the reasons and the procedure to have to
> > cleared up.
> > > I certainly hope that Google isn't caving into the demands of a
> > > totalitarian government. The company should realize that Google isn't
> > > the only place that one can obtain free email and blogs, and people
> > > will "vote with their feet" if they aren't happy.
> > > On Jan 31, 5:30 am, DaveU wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > > Apologies all if this is the incorrect area to post this question.
> > > > Does anyone have concerns about theGooglecensorshipofblogs?
> > > > Reason I ask is that the bloghttp://christforsaudi.blogspot.com/ > > > > appears to have been locked as a possible 'terms of service violation'
> > > > and yet the blogger has just (apparently) been writing about his
> > > > conversion from Islam to Christianity.
> > > > How can a topic such as this be a terms of service violation?
> > > > Curious...
> Glenn, you can believe what you want. I volunteer directly for Blogger
> and I know that they have a very hard time keeping up with the blogs
> that need to be pulled down because of serious TOS violations, so
> randomly pulling one because of political reasons is very unlikely.
> We have already reported the fact that this blog needs to be looked at
> to see if there is a TOS violation or if it just got caught up in the
> spam bot (which happens to lots of innocent blogs everyday). Hopefully
> we will hear something soon as to why it is not showing.
Bravo. Glad to see it back. Thanks to whomever helped make this
happen. Yes, I too hope that the Saudi government will also honour
this young man's freedom of belief and expression.
> So all you folks who read arabic can relax and review the web site.
> Hopefully the individual's incarcaration will end soon as well......
> A/C
> On Feb 5, 5:28 am, Mishka OP wrote:
> > Glenn, you can believe what you want. I volunteer directly for Blogger
> > and I know that they have a very hard time keeping up with the blogs
> > that need to be pulled down because of serious TOS violations, so
> > randomly pulling one because of political reasons is very unlikely.
> > We have already reported the fact that this blog needs to be looked at
> > to see if there is a TOS violation or if it just got caught up in the
> > spam bot (which happens to lots of innocent blogs everyday). Hopefully
> > we will hear something soon as to why it is not showing.
Just wanted to come in here and say thanks for your patience as we
worked through this case. As you can imagine, there were many legal
implications here and we had to make sure we dealt with this
correctly.
As y'all have noticed, the blog is back up for everyone to view.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend,
