Kay Luo LinkedIn, Sr. Director of Corporate Communications told me that also the Linkedin Outlook add-on will stay blocked.

“ Regarding the download, we (are) complying with the US law, so it is blocked in Syria. For the same reason, Sudan is blocked from accessing our site.”

she wrote some more few stuff in another email and told me they are not for blogging!

You can find more information about US sanctions enforcement here.

I am not a legal expert but by looking at the law, it says nothing about blocking website access? Some US based Linkedin competitors like ecademy and Plaxo are still accessible in Sudan and the vast majority of US based websites, So the question is why Linkedin only blocks access?

I have emailed Lou the following questions:

So in this regard how did you make the block decisions and who does it inside Linkedin? A Linkedin lawyer told you so? Or it was wired by a US government official to Linkedin?

One might wonder whether Linkedin is making a political statement and discrimination against the people of Sudan (majority are Black Muslims) since they unblocked Syria and not Sudan?! Let’s wait and see what Linkedin will say. On the other hand I have contacted few US based lawyers to explain if the sanctions include websites and software downloads and I will update you soon.

Ashraf Mansoor serial young Entrepreneur and Founder of the first job site for women in the Middle East Twffaha, told ArabCrunch:

As an entrepreneur in Sudan I find this appalling and disappointing, while these same companies claim that they pursue open standards to make the web a more open place, they ban specific countries, this is a total hypocrisy. What's next? we will not be allowed to edit our own Wikipedia pages? In an era where we call for different people to sit down and engage in fruitful conversations, we should allow these people to use the tools and platforms available like everyone else. I'm worried that other companies will follow suit and eventually Sudan and others will be web outcasts.

According to him GoDaddy hosted websites and any Google Downloaded product (Gtalk, Google Gears ..etc), are blocked and cannot be accessed from Sudan.

In her call to me Luo suggested to me to write a guest post for Linkedin Blog, however I think they might change their mind, since I am actively reporting this :P

According to the forum administrator, security forces have learned Abdel Hakim's password on March 6th, 2009 and deleted more than three hundred threads posted by the activist and other forum members:

On March 6, someone used Abdulhakeem's password and deleted [300] of his posts, as well as other posts by members, which will be tallied up soon as the posts were deleted completely and not partially. We tried calling Abdulhakeem to ask him about this but his phone was switched off. We called his brother Naar Al Mahsi, who called Sudan, and informed us that Abdulhakeem has been detained since last night. This shows that the security apparatus had used Abdel Hakim's password and deleted the posts. As a precautionary measure, administrator Hassam Al Mallik suspended the publishing rights of all moderators until further notice and until the site is further safeguarded.

Abdel Hakim has been released on March 11th, 2009. In a post published this week on International Forum for Nubia, Abdel Hakim described what he went through during the kidnapping and the interrogation and how he was beaten with gun butts and truncheons. A translation of Abdel Hakim's post will be published soon on Global Voices.

Update: below is the translation of Nasr's post done by Amira Al Hussaini

In this chilling post [Ar], on the forum which is now open to members only, Nasr details his arrest:

I was arrested on the night of March 5 in an operation close to burglary in cities and the effect of that raid is still reverberating through our peaceful villages. Ir wasn't the first time I had been arrested, but the effect of this arrest is etched in the memories of children, and our neighbours and even children in neighbouring areas. Even adults don't feel at peace anymore.

On his treatment during his detention, Nasr writes:

I was treated in an inhumane manner since my arrest at dawn on Friday until the end of the day on Saturday and this is what I will narrate in detail as its effects are still evident on my body. I have lost my ability to hear in my right ear and my sight in my right eye has been effected. I also feel dizzy the entire time and this prevents me from doing my work. The way I was treated changed after that, and the head of the security unit apologised to me more than once and his treatment changed until I was released. However, I am a human being at the end of the day, and I still suffer from the way I was arrested and my family has lost its security. My brother's children suffer from nightmares and the doors to our house are locked during the day and night and my family is suffering because of that. I also personally lost my hearing ability and this prevents me from communicating with my brother Muzamil, who has lost his hearing years ago.

Nasr then details how he was woken up from his sleep by one of 11 men who raided his home:

I had thought that my elder brother had come into the livingroom (where he was sleeping) to take some of his things, but was surprised by a voice waking me up. I moved my blanket away from me and saw lights beaming on my face. One of them asked me for my name and continued: “Get up with us without making noise. Deal with us properly so that we treat you properly. I felt hands on my back and the mouths of two rifles pushing my sides. I was asked to move. When I asked them for their identities, one of them asked me to remain silent and they asked me to leave the house by climbing over the fence. I refused that and insisted on leaving through the gate, so theur agreed. I asked them to inform my family, and they said they will do so. However, as soon as we got to the car which was waiting outside, they sped off without telling my family.
The men then took him through a few villages, changed cars and stopped to pray. Nasr recalls:

We arrived at the village of West Samt, where they stopped for prayers. I was then able to identify their features. After prayers, the torture started. It was as though they were ordered to torture me during their Sujiud (prostration).

“Sorry, this page has been blocked by National Telecommunication Corporation.”

Too Huge World, a western aid worker in Sudan took a screen shot of the page and reports this:

In a fatal blow to our already lackluster sources of entertainment, the Sudanese government has blocked access to YouTube, the online video sharing Web site.

Over at The Sudanese Thinker (which is my blog), commenters dropped their thoughts in reaction to my post about YouTube's blocking in Sudan. The comments indicate that the blocking is being implemented by some ISPs and not others.

No Angel on July 26th, 2008 1:03 pm
hey,i wonder how that rumour got started?!
drima i could assure you that youtube is not blocked,im in Sudan,khartoum i read your post typed in youtube.com and surprise surprise ITS WORKING..
so what are you guys going to spread exactly?

Sudan on July 26th, 2008 4:26 pm
Youtube is working fine in Sudan, Drima.

digital on July 26th, 2008 4:44 pm
No Angel, Sudan……
What ISP’s are you on??

Cause on Sudani and Zain mDSL it is currently blocked??

Are you guys are on Sudatel?

Sudan on July 27th, 2008 1:36 pm
Youtube is working on Canar ISP

digital on July 27th, 2008 4:19 pm
Well Canar do have their own cable….

DZA on July 27th, 2008 4:28 pm
yes canar have its own network .. youtube is blocked on NTC networks

At Black Kush's blog, a short but good conversation took place about this issue too. It sheds more light on what's going on.

The Sudanese Thinker reports that Youtube has been blocked in Sudan. Just wanna let you know that I still have access to Youtube, through the Canar ISP. Maybe it has not yet been blocked.

Here is a screen shot.

In response to the post, Amjad shared his opinion on the matter, which prompted a reply from Black Kush.

Amjad said…

This only means/proves that Canar ISP is not regulated by the Sudanese National Telecommunication Corporation, which is a shock to me.

The block as reported was from NTC and not specific ISPs. So supposedly all ISPs regulated by NTC have YouTube blocked and they can't do anything about it. But YouTube being working fine on Canar only means that Canar is not regulated by NTC which I still find hard to believe.

Either ways, I think Canar subscribers are lucky, aren't they?

Black Kush said…

I still don't know how this came about, because other sites are blocked by NTC, showing that famous notice.

Canar users are lucky, for now!

From the above, one can safely assume that those in Sudan using Canar as their ISP have no problem accessing YouTube for now, while those using other ISPs experience the blocking.

Facebook group

In line with what's looking increasingly like a trend, Sudanese flocked to Facebook to voice their concerns in a group dedicated to the matter. The group is called “Unblock Youtube In Sudan Now” and at the time of writing it has 476 members.

Over at the group, numerous members have commented that people shouldn't get too panicked since YouTube can still be easily accessed via proxy software or sub-domains such as uk.YouTube.com

Speculations on the reasons

The reasons behind this block are still vague.

Initially, some bloggers speculated that YouTube had been blocked because it features some indecent, sexual videos of Sudanese girls, but the videos in question had only few views, and are also circulating by mobile phone.

In a press release on AllAfrica.com, The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information say:

YouTube has recently become a key tool for political activists. A number of video clips have been posted with footage of Sudanese security personnel beating and torturing minors, who were arrested and detained following the 10 May armed attack on the capital, Khartoum, by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebels. Mass arrests in Khartoum of perceived supporters of the Darfur rebel group followed the attack.

This leaves us with the other possible and more probable reason behind YouTube's blocking in Sudan by the National Telecommunications Corporation.

ZoulcolmX shares his opinion on this.

I think it's just another attempt to suffocate freedom of speech, especially in times like these, with the international court after Omar, they don't want someone with the opposition to [interfere with] the official story about how every Sudanese citizen supports Omar. They don't want us to see the documentaries that have been posted lately about the “ghost houses” created to torture individuals who didn't support the “salvation revolution”, and with the elections coming, they don't want any anti-kizan* campaign, which is something not allowed on local newspapers, and the national TV is on their side 24/7, but YouTube, Facebook, and blogs give a free space for the truth, and this is what THEY fear the most.
This is not a moral issue, it is political. They have always profited from ignorance, and web 2.0 is against ignorance and those fascists really hates it, so I won't be surprised if they blocked Facebook or MySpace next. If they did, we'll have to do more than just creating a group on the web.

… * Kizan is a nickname for the National Islamic Front and the ruling party the National Congress members.

YouTube's blocking in Sudan has captured a good amount of attention which is a good sign indicating that people value the internet. Unfortunately, right now, there are many facts missing but with time, more of them will surface.