Monday, March 25, 2013

Whatsapp and Skype to be blocked in KSA?

Online communications services such as Skype and WhatsApp may be blocked in Saudi Arabia if they do not provide the means to monitor their content, declared today, sources in the telecommunications industry.

"Telecommunications companies were asked by the authorities to come up with the operators of these platforms applications to an agreement to monitor the content," said a source regulator in the Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC).


 


"The CITC has been given a one-week period, which ends on Saturday, to the telecommunications companies to get a response regarding content monitoring" an official of the Saudi Telecommunication Co . (STC), one of the three operators of the country, stated.

After this time, the CITC may block the popular WhatsApp and Skype applications for smartphones and internet telephony, he continued.

In addition to STC, Saudi Arabia has two other operators, Mobily and Zain and according to an industry source, these are companies that have asked the CITC to take action against these online communication services under the claim of unfair competing.

We have to mention that in the United Arab Emirates,most applications like Skype are blocked by the regulator of the country, apparently to protect the commercial interests of the two local operators Etisalat and Du.

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