Most Arab country net traffic headed for porn sites...
April 24, 2001 9:16 AM   Subscribe

Most Arab country net traffic headed for porn sites... I'm not surprised. But not for the same reason's that are put forth in the article... More inside. [Via ObscureStore]
posted by silusGROK (20 comments total)


 
A company I work with runs a proxy web surfing service that has its fair share of people using it to surf porn. Judging from the customer support we get from the Arab world, I'd say that most of the porn traffic that the study turned up is generated by the respective country's foreign work force... mostly men working in the oil industry.
posted by silusGROK at 9:21 AM on April 24, 2001


Gee Big surprise. Most X (fill in the blank here with racial group of your choice) country net traffic headed for porn sites too. How about a man bites dog story?
posted by DiplomaticImmunity at 9:23 AM on April 24, 2001


Man bites dog.

Actually, I have a "man bites dog" story that also involves Arab culture.

I once worked in an office that produces standardized tests of English proficiency for non-native speakers (no, not TOEFL). Years before, they had briefly experimented with a format in which they showed a short sentence of English with pictures, and the test-takers had to match the sentence to the proper picture. In testing this format, one of the sentences tey tried out was…you guessed it. So they had a picture of a dog biting a man, a man biting a dog (right in the ass), etc. They sent the test out to centers all over the world…and we met with this tidal wave of anger (shock, revulsion, denunciations, threats) from the Middle East, where dogs are widely considered unclean and especially their nether parts. This was like, oh, I don't know, putting a picture of a young girl fellating an older man maybe? on the test. Not good. They don't do that anymore.

How's that, Diplo?
posted by rodii at 9:39 AM on April 24, 2001


Ben Liden yanking his wanky to spankme.com, so thats what he does when he isn't blowing up U.S. buildings and boats.
posted by ImAlwaysRight at 9:57 AM on April 24, 2001


You are FreeSpeech/RightWinger, aren't you?
posted by rodii at 10:00 AM on April 24, 2001


Hush, rodii. I'm intrigued by his viewpoints, and wish to subscribe to his newsletter. (Of course he is.)

[From the article] The United Arab Emirates, like many other countries in the Arab world, block users from accessing such content -- or at least try.

Haw. Haw. Haw. Trying to keep men from pornography is like trying to keep iron filings from a magnet.
posted by Skot at 10:09 AM on April 24, 2001


Then FS/RW/IAR should have said:

They'll take my porn when they pry me from my cold, dead fingers....

Great story tho there rodii
posted by DiplomaticImmunity at 10:20 AM on April 24, 2001


>>Ben Liden yanking his wanky to spankme.com, so thats what he does when he isn't blowing up U.S. buildings and boats.

hey, whatever floats his boat, dude (or sinks ours, as the case may be).
posted by johnb at 10:21 AM on April 24, 2001


Not every man does porn, skot.

As for the dog bites man quality of the post... fair point. It shouldn't surprise anyone that a gross majority of web traffic (regardless of country) is smut. The interesting thing about the article for me was two-fold: My own personal experience with the traffic in question, and that such traffic was still seen as surprising.
posted by silusGROK at 10:21 AM on April 24, 2001


It's also reassuring. Or, perhaps it would be reassuring of they were seeking out uncensored news...
posted by ParisParamus at 11:07 AM on April 24, 2001


No, of course not, Vis10n. It would have been more accurate to say "the majority of men," but for the sake of brevity, I didn't. At least, I think that's a safe assumption. YMMV (oh, how I love cool web-cronyms).
posted by Skot at 11:13 AM on April 24, 2001


Um, YMMV?
posted by silusGROK at 11:49 AM on April 24, 2001


Even porn sites are having trouble nowadays. Its getting to be that there is no viable internet business models left



Oh, well. Maybe targeted micro-fetish is the next wave.
posted by thinkfuture at 11:55 AM on April 24, 2001


YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary

I'd say that most of the porn traffic that the study turned up is generated by the respective country's foreign work force... mostly men working in the oil industry.

i somehow doubt the volume of foreign workers's traffic is enough to make a statistical dent.
posted by fuzzygeek at 12:07 PM on April 24, 2001


Vis10n, it's Your Mileage May Vary.
posted by dfowler at 12:09 PM on April 24, 2001


oops, you beat me to it, fuzzygeek.
posted by dfowler at 12:09 PM on April 24, 2001


From the article (empahsis mine):

According to Wissam El Solh, CEO of Netakeoff in Beirut, Lebanon, Internet penetration among the 280 million people in the Arab world will increase from 2 million users last year to 3.5 million this year to more than 30 million in 2005.

Say no more, say no more.
posted by Dick Paris at 1:27 PM on April 24, 2001


is your wife a sport?
posted by fuzzygeek at 5:01 PM on April 24, 2001


Does she GO?
posted by DiplomaticImmunity at 7:25 PM on April 24, 2001


Say no MORE!
posted by lia at 9:45 PM on April 24, 2001


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