Top 10 Forbidden Technology
The very notion of technology is to help the human race live better. However, in certain countries, some technologies are ban. Below is a list of the Top 10 Technology Bans.
1. UAE, Saudi Arabia Ban the BlackBerry
Americans are used to having BlackBerrys glued to their hands, but after Oct. 11, travelers who fly to the United Arab Emirates will have to check their precious data service at the border. The UAE's telecommunications regulator announced Aug. 1 that because of security concerns, visitors and the some half-million local subscribers will have to learn to live without BlackBerry messaging, e-mail and Internet. The Emirates, and other countries such as India and Kuwait, have long battled with Research in Motion, the Canadian company that makes the BlackBerry, over the device's encryption, which makes it virtually impossible for governments to monitor the content for politically or morally objectionable material.
2. Pakistan Bans Facebook
Turns out South Park + Muhammad + Facebook + Pakistan is not a good combination. On May 19, Pakistan issued a court order banning the social-networking site nationwide, in response to a campaign by some Facebook members called "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day!" The campaign, in the name of free speech, was initially meant to defend a highly criticized South Park episode that featured Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, in a bear suit. The Facebook page prompted users to submit drawings of the Prophet — some of which were rather explicit and racist — and was seen as "deliberately and recklessly" blasphemous by the Lahore-based court.
3. The Great Firewall of China
China has more Internet addicts than most countries have people, and its leadership knows full well the power of the Web. A government white paper in June hailed the Internet as "a crystallization of all human wisdom" but, in typical Beijing speak, reminded the world that "within Chinese territory, the Internet is under the jurisdiction of Chinese sovereignty. The Internet sovereignty of China should be respected and protected." What this alludes to is the vast, often mysterious set of blocks and bans the authoritarian government has imposed, sometimes relaxed and then reimposed on whole swaths of the online world.
4. Laser Pointers
It seemed like such a good idea. As PowerPoint overtook slide projectors, lasers, once the preserve of missile-defense systems and rock concerts, allowed a presenter to emphasize a point without getting in the way of the pretty slides. Soon, laser pointers became smaller and more powerful. You could have one on your key chain and dazzle your boss in a budget meeting. You could point to the constellation Orion and wow your kids. You could even use one to ward off bears while camping. Or you could shoot a soccer goalie in the eye during a World Cup qualifier (Saudi Arabia vs. South Korea, 2008) or perhaps point it at passing planes. In 2008, following a rash of laser attacks on Sydney passenger jets, the Australian government banned high-powered lasers. Most of Europe followed suit, and while the U.S. allows medium-powered pointers (up to 5 mw), anything more powerful will get you in trouble with the law.
5. Colleges Ban Napster
At the turn of this century, there were pretty much two ways to get music: watch MTV (when it played music) or shell out nearly 20 bucks for a CD. Enter Shawn Fanning, a Northeastern University student who invented Napster, a computer program that allowed users to share songs over the Internet. Music was suddenly everywhere, and it was all free. In one of the first great battles over intellectual property in the Internet era, mega-metal band Metallica sued Napster for copyright infringement. But college students had more immediate concerns. Colleges began banning Napster, because the website's file sharing used up all available bandwidth
6. Israel Blocks the iPad
Israel is home to some of the most cutting-edge technology in the world, but its gadget geeks fumed for two weeks in April when Tel Aviv barred the introduction of the iPad on Israeli soil. During that spell, any passenger landing in the country with the device had it confiscated and was forced to pay $12 a day to have it kept in storage. State authorities said at the time that the wi-fi functions of the iPad conformed to U.S. standards, not the European ones in place in Israel, and therefore constituted a potentially disruptive threat to the country's military frequencies — a claim with little evidence to support it. The ban was lifted on April 25, after much hand-wringing and with little explanation.
7. Cell Phones in Cuba
When Fidel Castro decided to officially hand over the reins of power in Cuba to his younger brother Raúl on Feb. 24, 2008, it would have been illegal for Fidel to notify him via commercial cell phone. Over the course of his half-century of rule, Fidel defended the restrictions he placed on Cuba's 11 million citizens by saying they were necessary sacrifices in the "battle of ideas" against enemy numero uno — the U.S. By the time mobile technology spread its networks throughout the interconnected world, it was just another innovation that wasn't destined to arrive on the communist island. Officially, that is. The thriving Cuban black market, facilitated by help from friends and family in Miami, and its pricey cell phones flew in the face of the Commandante's revolutionary rhetoric. So when Raúl consented to reality and had the cell-phone ban lifted on April 1, 2008, it was the first of several major modernizations he would usher in.
8. Music-Free Marathons
You know that sinking feeling you get when you arrive at the gym and realize you've forgotten your iPod at home? Now imagine running 26 miles without music. In 2007, USA Track & Field, the governing body for running, banned headphones and portable audio players like iPods at its official races. The measure was meant to protect the runners' safety (maybe they wouldn't hear course directions) and ensure there wasn't a competitive advantage (because, you know, Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" can really getcha movin'). Luckily for music-loving racers, the rule is nearly impossible to enforce, given the throngs of runners and smallness of the devices. USA Track & Field amended the rule in 2008 to allow the use of headphones and music players in nonchampionship races.
9. Google Street View
Street View is the next generation of Google mapping — why squint at the world from the remove of a satellite when you can get a full panoramic view on the ground? By 2008, the company started rolling out its Street View maps, compiled in part by teams of cameramen in cars patrolling nearly every nook and cranny of America's cities and eventually cities in Europe and Asia. But Street View raised obvious privacy concerns. Who wants to be shown exiting a strip club or urinating in public (as some Street View snapshots that went viral revealed)?
10. Apple's Sexy Apps
These apps would have taken the concept of AppleCare to a whole new level. In late February 2010, Apple officially banned from its iTunes Store applications that were deemed too lewd and lascivious. Among the apps deemed out of bounds was iBoobs, in which users toggle through wobbling bosoms on display. Techies saw the move as a sign that Apple would maintain a heavy hand in regulating its marketplace. And it was in that spirit that Apple had earlier rolled out parental controls in the summer of 2009. As for deciding what crosses the line — indeed, some swimsuit-centric apps have gotten the okay — Apple might be wise to embrace the classic threshold for obscenity offered in 1964 by that great temple of romance, the U.S. Supreme Court
1. UAE, Saudi Arabia Ban the BlackBerry
Americans are used to having BlackBerrys glued to their hands, but after Oct. 11, travelers who fly to the United Arab Emirates will have to check their precious data service at the border. The UAE's telecommunications regulator announced Aug. 1 that because of security concerns, visitors and the some half-million local subscribers will have to learn to live without BlackBerry messaging, e-mail and Internet. The Emirates, and other countries such as India and Kuwait, have long battled with Research in Motion, the Canadian company that makes the BlackBerry, over the device's encryption, which makes it virtually impossible for governments to monitor the content for politically or morally objectionable material.
2. Pakistan Bans Facebook
Turns out South Park + Muhammad + Facebook + Pakistan is not a good combination. On May 19, Pakistan issued a court order banning the social-networking site nationwide, in response to a campaign by some Facebook members called "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day!" The campaign, in the name of free speech, was initially meant to defend a highly criticized South Park episode that featured Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, in a bear suit. The Facebook page prompted users to submit drawings of the Prophet — some of which were rather explicit and racist — and was seen as "deliberately and recklessly" blasphemous by the Lahore-based court.
3. The Great Firewall of China
China has more Internet addicts than most countries have people, and its leadership knows full well the power of the Web. A government white paper in June hailed the Internet as "a crystallization of all human wisdom" but, in typical Beijing speak, reminded the world that "within Chinese territory, the Internet is under the jurisdiction of Chinese sovereignty. The Internet sovereignty of China should be respected and protected." What this alludes to is the vast, often mysterious set of blocks and bans the authoritarian government has imposed, sometimes relaxed and then reimposed on whole swaths of the online world.
4. Laser Pointers
It seemed like such a good idea. As PowerPoint overtook slide projectors, lasers, once the preserve of missile-defense systems and rock concerts, allowed a presenter to emphasize a point without getting in the way of the pretty slides. Soon, laser pointers became smaller and more powerful. You could have one on your key chain and dazzle your boss in a budget meeting. You could point to the constellation Orion and wow your kids. You could even use one to ward off bears while camping. Or you could shoot a soccer goalie in the eye during a World Cup qualifier (Saudi Arabia vs. South Korea, 2008) or perhaps point it at passing planes. In 2008, following a rash of laser attacks on Sydney passenger jets, the Australian government banned high-powered lasers. Most of Europe followed suit, and while the U.S. allows medium-powered pointers (up to 5 mw), anything more powerful will get you in trouble with the law.
At the turn of this century, there were pretty much two ways to get music: watch MTV (when it played music) or shell out nearly 20 bucks for a CD. Enter Shawn Fanning, a Northeastern University student who invented Napster, a computer program that allowed users to share songs over the Internet. Music was suddenly everywhere, and it was all free. In one of the first great battles over intellectual property in the Internet era, mega-metal band Metallica sued Napster for copyright infringement. But college students had more immediate concerns. Colleges began banning Napster, because the website's file sharing used up all available bandwidth
6. Israel Blocks the iPad
Israel is home to some of the most cutting-edge technology in the world, but its gadget geeks fumed for two weeks in April when Tel Aviv barred the introduction of the iPad on Israeli soil. During that spell, any passenger landing in the country with the device had it confiscated and was forced to pay $12 a day to have it kept in storage. State authorities said at the time that the wi-fi functions of the iPad conformed to U.S. standards, not the European ones in place in Israel, and therefore constituted a potentially disruptive threat to the country's military frequencies — a claim with little evidence to support it. The ban was lifted on April 25, after much hand-wringing and with little explanation.
7. Cell Phones in Cuba
When Fidel Castro decided to officially hand over the reins of power in Cuba to his younger brother Raúl on Feb. 24, 2008, it would have been illegal for Fidel to notify him via commercial cell phone. Over the course of his half-century of rule, Fidel defended the restrictions he placed on Cuba's 11 million citizens by saying they were necessary sacrifices in the "battle of ideas" against enemy numero uno — the U.S. By the time mobile technology spread its networks throughout the interconnected world, it was just another innovation that wasn't destined to arrive on the communist island. Officially, that is. The thriving Cuban black market, facilitated by help from friends and family in Miami, and its pricey cell phones flew in the face of the Commandante's revolutionary rhetoric. So when Raúl consented to reality and had the cell-phone ban lifted on April 1, 2008, it was the first of several major modernizations he would usher in.
8. Music-Free Marathons
You know that sinking feeling you get when you arrive at the gym and realize you've forgotten your iPod at home? Now imagine running 26 miles without music. In 2007, USA Track & Field, the governing body for running, banned headphones and portable audio players like iPods at its official races. The measure was meant to protect the runners' safety (maybe they wouldn't hear course directions) and ensure there wasn't a competitive advantage (because, you know, Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" can really getcha movin'). Luckily for music-loving racers, the rule is nearly impossible to enforce, given the throngs of runners and smallness of the devices. USA Track & Field amended the rule in 2008 to allow the use of headphones and music players in nonchampionship races.
Street View is the next generation of Google mapping — why squint at the world from the remove of a satellite when you can get a full panoramic view on the ground? By 2008, the company started rolling out its Street View maps, compiled in part by teams of cameramen in cars patrolling nearly every nook and cranny of America's cities and eventually cities in Europe and Asia. But Street View raised obvious privacy concerns. Who wants to be shown exiting a strip club or urinating in public (as some Street View snapshots that went viral revealed)?
10. Apple's Sexy Apps
These apps would have taken the concept of AppleCare to a whole new level. In late February 2010, Apple officially banned from its iTunes Store applications that were deemed too lewd and lascivious. Among the apps deemed out of bounds was iBoobs, in which users toggle through wobbling bosoms on display. Techies saw the move as a sign that Apple would maintain a heavy hand in regulating its marketplace. And it was in that spirit that Apple had earlier rolled out parental controls in the summer of 2009. As for deciding what crosses the line — indeed, some swimsuit-centric apps have gotten the okay — Apple might be wise to embrace the classic threshold for obscenity offered in 1964 by that great temple of romance, the U.S. Supreme Court
