Qtel forces Google’s safesearch feature to be switched on – Qtel censorship

16 Dec, 2009  Annoyances

Here’s something interesting. I never really paid attention to this because I’ve never had to switch the feature off. Qtel forces google’s ‘safesearch’ feature to be switched on so that it’s always stuck on ‘On’ or ‘Strict’.

Whether you go into your preferences and switch it of or not, it’s always stuck on strict.

Guess Qtel didn’t want people using Google Images for the wrong reason and looking at tiny thumbnails of the wrong thing. *rolls eyes*

On a side note, ictQatar, the countries regulator has said that they have nothing to do with censorship. In fact if we look deeper into legislation, censorship goes again legislation and online media freedom.

  • Bleu

    The problem is that it restricts the search results to less than half the results… even if they don’t contain anything “banned”.

  • Intlxpatr

    Do you drive a white car with Qatar blood red hearts all over it?

  • Frdrckk

    This is madness.

  • ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

    It’s the same for Saudi ISPs (at least Saudinet). Interesting stuff! Trick: Just add the string: “&safe=active” to the end of each URL, and you can treat people like 10-year olds. :D

  • http://www.iloveqatar.net Kei

    doesn’t work because Qtel adds it straight onto the URL

  • sam

    no…this…is…sparta!!!

Freedom of Expression

    Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which the Qatari Government is a signatory of states: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any medias and regardless of any frontiers.

    The Emiri Decision Number 86 of the year 2007 on the establishment of the Doha Free Information Centre marked yet another step towards establishing a State of rights and freedom of speech. The decision stipulated that the Centre be a non-profit organization, headquartered in Doha City, and have the authority to establish other affiliated centres inside and outside Qatar. It is worth mentioning that His Highness the Emir issued a decision in 1998 annulling the ministry of information, giving birth to a new era of freedom of speech where censorship was removed from local media.