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Kuwait ask for crackdown on Internet Freedom

There is an old Arabic saying
“if freedom was raining , slaves will carry umbrellas ”

There is a raising call for internet censorship in Kuwait , and here are couple of examples

هنالك مقوله عربيه قديمة
” اذا امطرت السماء حرية فإن بعض العبيد سيمسكون بالمظلات ”

http://www.alanba.com.kw/kottab/hamad-alsarea/472857/30-05-2014

٭ الحكومة رصدت لوزارة المواصلات مبلغ 5 ملايين دينار منذ سنوات عدة لإنشاء مقسم يراقب كل خطوط الإنترنت وما زال المشروع متوقفا لأسباب غير معروفة وان كان يقال ان صراع المتنفذين هو من أوقف ذلك المشروع.

لكثير يعتقد أن تركيب تلك المعدات والأجهزة الحديثة ستراقب مكالماتهم ورسائلهم وهي أمر غير صحيح لأن الأجهزة تبحث عن شخصية مستخدم الموقع وليس معرفة الرسائل التي يبثها.

مجلس الوزراء عليه التدخل لإجبار وزارة المواصلات على إنشاء ذلك المقسم للحد من قضايا الإنترنت المجهولة.

[Translation]

The government has allocated five million dinnars years ago to establish a switch to monitor all internet lines and this project is still on hold for reasons unknown , some say it because of struggle between parties

A lot think that setting up those modern equipment would monitor their calls and messages but in fact it is untrue because the equipment look for the user and not the content of the messages
the Ministers council should intervene to force the ministry of Communication to establish that switch to stop anonymous internet cases

[/Translation]

Another comes from a lawyer
Screenshot_2013-11-24-16-23-43

[Translation]to the minster of Interior and Minister of communication , the solution is in your hands , install the device and stop all these problem facing citizen from insults and degrading and today threats
[/Translation]

And now with the new Communication rule thrown in , it seem the age of limited Internet Freedom in Kuwait is going to go offline

و الان مع ظهور قانون الاتصالات الجديد يبدوا ان حتي الحريه المحدوده للإنترنت في الكويت علي وشك ان تختفي

Chromecast

So I bought a chromecast

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And i cost 35$

So what you get for 35$ ?

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From left to right , micro USB cable , HDMI extender , Chromecast , power adapter

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As you can see , you can either connect it using USB or the power adapter , I went with the USB

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Next you need to install chromecast app , and this happened
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Couple minutes on VPN as and it was installed , ran setup and it running fine

What can it do ?

So far there are three app that are connected to it
YouTube , Netflix , Google play movies

You pick the YouTube / Netflix /movie in you mobile or laptop and send it to the chromecaster which would stream it , not from you but from the internet

Pro’s :
* cheap ( 35$ cheaper than most other TV adapters )
* You can queue videos to play one after the other

Con’s :
* its built for american market , either you use VPN or you miss out
* doesn’t play videos or picture’s from your mobile
* There is master or lock Down , if you have the app on your mobile , you can add and remove video’s so you have four clients setup for the chromecaster ? ANARCHY !!

Where is the Creditability AlQabas ?

So AlQabas has this section with comments on Ramadan programs , during the last week of Ramadan they started using Tweets from Kuwaitis commenting on Ramadan programming

Some Tweeters were not amused that they just used the Tweets without Credits

So AlQabas just decided to write the name of the tweeter but no the link or the user name he use so you you will have to search and search to find him
for example today they have [Link][Arabic Pdf]
and here [Link][Arabic Pdf]

and i’m who is this Sara ? have you tried searching for just sara on Twitter ?
But hey , its Traditional newspaper in Kuwait , and for some reason they hate Internet

Then in today Issue today they list some comedy tweets about Qaddafi and what i see ? [link][Arabic PDF]

Wait a minute ? why every Twitter user is listed here and not just names and let search as you been doing for Kuwaiti users ?
Do the other Arabic Twitter User deserve recondition but Kuwaiti do not ?

Kuwait Internet Cap , or Why it is not as innocent as it looks

If you wondering what the Cap , then you should check Q8Cap Site to tell you better about it

Now I Believe that The current Hike in prices is an agreed on thing not only between ISP , but between ISP and The Ministry of Communication
Why you may ask ?

Because Back in 2007 , the MOC raised the price of Cable Usage for the ISP , 4 years ago , yet internet Subscription prices went down year after year
now The ISP raised the prices , and the reason most of them gave was the MOC prices

Ask your self this , if the problem was the price increase , why wait from 2007 till now to raise the price ? why did it go down in the first place in 2007 , 2008 , 2009 ?

Also Another Thing that the Companies keep on saying
They say we can’t do anything to MOC , really we going that way ?
lets take one of the companies as an example

QualityNet

What names on the company as partners ?

Khalid Ali Alghanim ( Listed as General Manager )
( son of the Head of the Kuwaiti Chamber of Commerce )
Shiekah AlBahar ( Listed as a Partner )
( CEO of National Bank of Kuwait )
Marzouq AlGhanim ( Listed as a Partner )
( Parliament Member for over 3 terms )

among others

Clearly the company isn’t run by unknown people , or immigrants
so when they say they can’t talk to the Minister they are just making up excuses

When the companies say they don’t have a voice , they are also thinking that we are dumb or forget
Back in August 1999 , AlRai newspaper ran a big campaign to expose the MOC as corrupt , because KEMS was getting favors Qualitynet and Fasttelco didn’t get back then

that campaign ended with the Under-Secretary back then , out of the ministry !

Now we have established two thing

1- The companies aren’t weak
2- They don’t lack the voice

Now you need to ask your self , why are they doing this now ?

The Right answer In my opinion is because its an agreement between them and MOC , they pressure US the USERS , we pressure the MOC , the MOC reduce the Prices ( set in 2007 ) and they all win

If you ask why they do that and not just get the MOC to reduce the price , You forgot Kuwait politics , The MOC want something to defend it self , because if they reduce the price because the companies asked , they will face a backlash from parliament members , but now they can claim it was the people that demanded it

Internet ? Why think of it!

So we have a new newspaper in kuwait
” ALKUWAITIAH  الكويتية “
Which may sound good and all , after all we are up to number 14 right now
But the guys who picked out the name clearly have not thought of the internet at all
Why you ask ? Very easy
Search for it name in google ,

ah yes you are using a description ( the nationality ) as a name of your newspaper , if i search for
” جريده كويتيه ”
name on google i’ll get the others first , not them because they are all kuwaiti newspaper  !!

Brilliant as always