zlacker

I don't know. A lot of countries in the Middle East block all sorts of stuff and yet VPN usage is ubiquitous, but the governments appear to turn a blind eye. Like "we've done our bit and made the law." So it remains to be seen how far they'll go with this.

>>qingch+(OP)
It's probably more a matter of, "let everyone engage in illegal activities, which we can then use to turn the screws on them if they ever need to."

This is a ubiquitous tactic at the highest level of law enforcement.

>>qingch+(OP)
A lot of countries in the Middle East throw gay people off the roofs of buildings as punishment, let's assume for the sake of argument that anything we do that moves us closer to the Middle East is the wrong thing to do.

>>pc86+0Q2
I don't know that "a lot" of countries in the Middle East are regularly throwing gay people off buildings, but I agree with your second point that we shouldn't look at their censorship as an example of something great to follow.

I would add that from my experience with the Gulf, at least, the ME has created one of the gayest places on Earth. The separation between genders has led to a disproportionate number of women and men semi-openly sleeping with their own gender in a kind of "don't ask, don't tell" way.

It feels like the "punish them for being gay" is used, like the poster below you mentions, as a way to turn the screws on you when they need something to use against you for another reason.

>>mywitt+OK
That is what the UK has been doing and is doing, along with most if not all Governments. One just has to take a look at UK's 2003 Communication Act. It can be selectively enforced against you if they do not like you.