back to article Dating apps swiped left on Pakistan’s request to clean up their acts, bans followed

Pakistan has continued its crusade against lewd online content by banning a bunch of dating apps. Tindr, Tagged, Grindr, Skout and SayHi* have all felt the wrath of the nation’s Telecommunications Authority, which overnight said they all offer “immoral/indecent content streaming” that has negative effects on society. The …

  1. Potemkine! Silver badge

    For some, Middle Age never ended.

    1. chuBb.

      Would have thought they would start with vpns or the muck hosted within their borders first...

      1. NoneSuch Silver badge
        Coat

        You are dealing with a combination of ignorance and religious intolerance. Neither can be filtered or blocked. They only want their message heard and nothing else. Their standards, their morals, their expectations.

        No different than the Great Firewall of China, Russian border routers, North Korea's restrictions on any outside information or Fox News moderators deleting liberal comments from their web sites.

        They are right. If you have an opposing view, you are wrong.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Blasphemous?

    Should such medieval ideas be placed in inverted commas?

    You can argue the point with your creator once you find that there really is awareness after death!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That it is possible to block particular websites within a country is a design flaw with the internet.

    Packets should be able to reroute around any blocks put in place (unless absolutely nothing is allowed through).

    1. doublelayer Silver badge

      Really? How would that work? Let's simulate it. You are in a house, representing Pakistan. To be nice, I'll give you five separate internet connections in that house. I run all of them, and I'm blocking specific traffic on all five. Now you can play whack-a-mole with me if you want by using VPNs or the like, but you want the internet to solve your problem for you. So how does your fixed internet prevent me from blocking packets when I control all the lines along which packets might come?

      The internet does route around damage, accidental damage that is. It doesn't route around someone deliberately damaging it thoroughly enough that it can't route around. That's why we have things like VPNs so intentional blocking can be circumvented. It requires effort because the thing you're trying to combat is complex. No matter what automatic system you create, a sufficiently motivated person can take it down.

      1. Alan Brown Silver badge

        "So how does your fixed internet prevent me from blocking packets when I control all the lines along which packets might come?"

        Starlink (in future), or one of the myriad satellite providers in the area (if you can put up with the latency)

        The Internet's "routing around damage" requires alternate pathing be available and that's been broken ever since the tier1s emerged

        1. doublelayer Silver badge

          "Starlink (in future), or one of the myriad satellite providers in the area (if you can put up with the latency)"

          No on both options. Starlink's operators have explicitly stated that they will comply with local regulations (I.E. censorship). So does pretty much every satellite provider, because if they don't, their equipment for subscribers to use the system is illegal to sell in that country. If you do find an operator willing to violate that (spoiler alert, you can't), there's another solution which has been time-tested on satellite TV receivers. Ask Turkmenistan to recommend a good hammer for destroying dishes and they might even throw in the good hammer to use against the users of those dishes as well.

  4. markr555

    Morality?

    A country that murders apostates, homosexuals and rape victims wants to talk morality? FUCK OFF!

  5. Frank Bitterlich

    Oh, does that mean...

    [...] offer “immoral/indecent content streaming” that has negative effects on society.

    Oh, I guess that means goodbye for Facebook in Pakistan... come to think of it, most of the internet, actually.

  6. wolfetone Silver badge

    I'm surprised Grindr was allowed in Pakistan at all.

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