Qatar's naughty websites

Web surfers who hoped that Vodafone's Qatar launch might mean a more progressive approach to web censorship have been dissappointed - not to mention somewhat baffled, by the operator's new blocking screen

Web surfers who hoped that Vodafone's Qatar launch might mean a more progressive approach to web censorship have been dissappointed - not to mention somewhat baffled, by the operator's new blocking screen.

It seems that inevitably, Vodafone Qatar is going to block sites the same as other ISPs in the country, but that it's also got something of an odd take on why its doing so - at least in Arabic. The blocking screen, so I'm reliably informed, reads something like: "Oops! It looks like the website you're trying to access has been a bit naughty.  Our tech team will teach him a lesson in good behavior, it should behave better soon."

Which is either fairly patronizing, or someone at Vodafone Qatar tipping the wink to how ridiculous the whole idea of web blocking is - you decide!