On 1st July, 2010, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior (MOI) has reportedly established a special department to monitor Facebook activities and content in Egypt according to the administrative decision 765.

The main task of this group is to monitor Facebook content like groups, pages and chat and to publish reports countering online criticism of current Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak or his son Gamal.

There is team of 45 members in Egypt who are monitoring the activities of Egypt's 3.8 million Facebook users as well as the monitoring of e-mail .

An anonymous security source mentioned to the Aljarida newspaper that Egyptian security authorities used to censor Facebook among other websites but the MOI paid special attention to Facebook in 2008 after the first call for 6 April Strike that was organized on Facebook.

The anonymous source mentioned to the newspaper that there are groups of paid young Egyptians from the National Democratic Party (NDP) youth, to defense the NDP and the government. According to the same source they have already created 166 Facebook group in support of president's son Gamal Mubarak and 38 other groups supporting his father, resident Hosni Mubarak.

Oman's Telecom Regulation Authority (TRA) has made a call for Public Consultation/Opinion on a regulation to be made a law that will prohibit the use of Virtual Private Networks for individuals in Oman.

The proposed law imposes a fine of 500 Omani Rial (almost 1,300 USD) on individuals and 1,000 Omani Rial on companies without the proper permit.

This new regulation (Arabic) makes it clearly an offense to use VPN at home, and allows it only to private and public institution who have to apply for TRA's approval before using VPN, the TRA also retains to right to object to any grant this approval without provide reasons for this objection.

VPNs are primarily used in Oman to bypass ISP censorship and the prohibition of the use of VOIP. A few also use VPN service to fake their IP location in order to use services offered in a region only (e.g. Hulu).

The regulation defines a VPN as : a private information network for private use made through the use of connections with a public communications network. stated MIL.

Which is a very broad and vague definition encompassing any kind of connection established using even mobile and smart devices with a VPN as a requirement for functionality, which presents the question as of how TRA plans on monitoring whether or not users are transferring data over a VPN.

Additionally that will mean any application that establishes a connection using a VPN will be breaking the law, amongst which is BlackBerry's famous Messenger service.

Iranian newspapers have been banned from publishing the names or photos of the leaders of Iran's green movement, according to a confidential governmental ruling revealed by an opposition website.

The ruling, issued by Iran's ministry of culture and Islamic guidance on 18 August, was stamped top secret and urgent. It was addressed to the editors of newspapers and news agencies in Iran, and bans them from publishing any news about the defeated presidential candidates in last summer's disputed election and current opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, and the former reformist president, Mohammad Khatami.

The opposition website irangreenvoice.com has published a copy of the letter, which reads: Keeping the society and the public opinion calm is the main responsibility of the media. Security officials have considerations about publishing news, photos and speeches of Mr Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and Mohammad Khatami, therefore according to the clause 2 of the article 5 of the press code publishing news, photos and reports about the these people are prohibited.

An Iranian journalist who works for a government paper, and asked not to be identified, told the Guardian: Soon after the election last year, those papers which insisted on publishing news or reports about the opposition leaders were all closed down , so after a while an unwritten ruling overshadowed the media in Iran. Self-censorship meant no journalist even dared to utter the names of the opposition leaders to their editors, let alone publishing any news about them.

Last week, Iran also closed down Asia, a financial newspaper and suspended the permission for publication of two magazines, Sepidar and Parastoo. Since the disputed election in June, Iran has shut eight newspapers, including Etemaad, Iran's most prominent reformist paper, and has imprisoned more than 100 journalists and bloggers. Almost all opposition newspapers are closed down and access to their websites is blocked.

Reporters Without Borders is worried by a provisional cyber crimes law that Jordan's  government decreed on 3 August and calls for its repeal. By establishing a legal framework for news and information websites and specifying sanctions for violators, it has created a legislative arsenal that can be used to regulate the Internet and punish those whose posts upset the authorities.

The penalties, which range from fines to forced labor, depend on the content posted. The authorities have invoked the need to defend the public interest and regulate the online chaos but website owners and online journalists regard the law as a threat to the freedom of the media and communications.

The lack of detail in certain of the new law's provisions, the vague concepts used to define offenses and the disproportionate penalties open the door to restrictive and arbitrary interpretation that will restrict freedom of expression and information, Reporters Without Borders said.

Article 3 of the law stipulates that the authorities must be notified of what is posted online line but it does not say how or where they should be notified. Failure to comply with this article is punishable by a fine.

The law also establishes a range of sanctions for online content that is deemed to defame or to violate public decency or national security. The penalties for violating public decency are likely to restrict freedom of information by being applied to innocuous content. Articles 9, 10 and 11 are supposed to target content that is immoral or pornographic or content that promotes prostitution or terrorism. The sanctions range from fines of 300 to 5,000 dinars (316 to 5,265 euros) to jail sentences of 3 months to 1 year, with the possibility of forced labor.

Other articles are just as disturbing. Article 8 stipulates that the posting of any defamatory or insulting comment is publishable by fines ranging from 100 to 2,000 dinars (105 to 2,100 euros). Journalists fear that this will result in more defamation prosecutions and will complicate the work of reporting.

Article 12 says that the posting of hitherto unpublished information affecting Jordan's national security, foreign relations, public order or economy is punishable by a fine of 500 to 5,000 dinars (527 to 5,265 euros) and a minimum of four months in prison. This ban on posting confidential information will necessarily limit freedom of information. This government attempt to limit coverage of sensitive issues poses a major threat to investigative journalism.

Article 13 gives the attorney-general unlimited power to issue the police with a warrant to search the home of anyone suspected of violating this law. It also authorizes police officers to carry out a search on their own initiative by referring to the attorney-general.

The censorship committee for the Egyptian television has decided to delete numerous scenes they considered inappropriate from television dramas to be aired during the month of Ramadan.

The committee considered that having inappropriate scenes is not right and should be removed to show respect for Ramadan.

RIM Blackberry services have been restored in Saudi Arabia, reports say.

The authorities object to the devices because they operate an encrypted message service meaning that communication from Blackberry devices cannot be monitored.

The BBC's Ben Thompson, in Dubai, said that there are conflicting reports about why the handsets are currently working again.

Services are up and running again across the country, he confirmed: But inevitably, that raises more questions than it answers. If RIM did grant Saudi Arabia access to its security codes, other countries in the region would now expect the same.

RIM has been contacted by the BBC. In a statement earlier this week a spokesperson for the company said that the devices were deliberately designed to prevent anybody from accessing individual message data, which is stored on servers in Canada: RIM cannot accommodate any request for a copy of a customer's encryption key, since at no time does RIM, or any wireless network operator or any third party, ever possess a copy of the key. [Then how do they so easily seem to be conceding snooping rights to India and Saudi?]

RIM has added India to the list of countries with which it's prepared to share data, and will help Kuwait block porn sites, but still hasn't opened its services up to the UAE.

Indian security forces will be able to intercept emails sent and received by BlackBerry users, within 15 days, as Reuters reports the country has been added to RIM's list of acceptable governments.

BlackBerry users enjoy unparalleled security in their email services, with email stored on RIM's servers and encrypted all the way to the handset. If you want to intercept mail you need access to the handset, or the servers, which is difficult when the former is in the hands of the user and the latter is in a different country.

The UAE-owned operator, Etisalat, did try to get snooping software onto BlackBerry handsets with a faked upgrade that failed in spectacular fashion. That really annoyed RIM, so now the UAE government faces crawling to RIM to ask for access to the servers, or just banning the devices from the country.

Saudi Arabia has lifted a ban on books written by its ailing labour minister whose liberal tone provoked both the official clerical establishment and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Ghazi Algosaibi is a former ambassador to London and a confidant of King Abdullah whose push for reform has fostered divisions among senior members of the religious establishment and between reformists and the most conservative clerics.

Bin Laden singled out Algosaibi in a taped message from his hideout in 2006 as a liberal fifth columnist.

Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry service may be banned in India unless the Canadian company agrees to allow India to snoop on usres, according to a government official with direct knowledge of the matter.

India has told Research In Motion to set up a proxy server in the country to enable security agencies to monitor e-mail trafficl.

RIM has the best encryption, significant subscribers, and a brand that's known across the world, said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner Inc. in Mumbai.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company has assured the Indian government that it will address the nation's snooping requirements.

Mint newspaper earlier reported the government is considering banning mobile e-mail services including BlackBerry.

The company faced obstacles recently in Pakistan, where the national telecommunications regulator said it blocked Internet browsers on BlackBerry handsets, citing supposed concerns over blasphemy.

Moves against BlackBerry in Saudi and UAE

Based on article from dailymail.co.uk

More than a million BlackBerry owners are to have services cut in two Gulf states after authorities demanded access to spy on users.

Both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are to prevent the use of the instant messaging service between the handsets. And the UAE will also block emails being sent and bar internet access on the smartphones.

There are an estimated 500,000 BlackBerry users in the UAE, and 700,000 in Saudi Arabia.

In Saudi Arabia in particular, BlackBerry handsets have become the must-have gizmo for Saudi youths. They enable them to connect with members of the opposite sex in a deeply conservative society.

The Saudi move will begin later this month. Abdulrahman Mazi, a board member of state-controlled Saudi Telecom, has admitted that the decision is intended to put pressure on Blackberry's Canadian owner, Research in Motion (RIM), to release data from users' communications when needed.

The UAE's telecoms regulator, TRA, said some Blackberry services would be suspended from October 11.