32 Comments For “Linkedin Kicks Off Syrian Users!”

1. Hiconomics | April 17th, 2009 at 6:22 AM
   

   Cool post… and like you I don’t get the need for this… it poses no harm to anyone and is an over-exaggerated response to the US embargo.

   I have quite a few people from Syria in my network, and what’s interesting is that their profiles are still visibly active… I guess the only positive spin on this is that they didn’t de-activate all Syrian profiles… that would’ve been disastrous..

   BTW anyone know of an Arabic equivalent to LinkedIn?

2. US издънка: LinkedIn блокира потребители от Сирия « Intidar | April 17th, 2009 at 12:51 PM
   

   [...] http://arabcrunch.com/2009/04/breaking-linkedin-kicks-off-syrian-users.html [...]

3. Khaled | April 17th, 2009 at 6:03 PM
   

   Thanks for this post, don’t know why they keep blocking many services here, and yes we are afraid when Gmail and Greader will be blocked :S

4. AN@S | April 17th, 2009 at 7:32 PM
   

   Thanks for the post. I’ve updated my original post and and included the reply I got from LinkedIn about the reason of suspending my account, they said:
   “Dear Anas,
   Per the terms of our User Agreement, use of LinkedIn services, including our software, is subject to export and re-export control laws and regulations. This includes the Export Administration Regulations maintained by the United States Department of Commerce and sanctions programs maintained by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. Under the User Agreement, LinkedIn Users warrant that they are not prohibited from receiving U.S. origin products, including services or software. As such, and as a matter of corporate policy, we do not allow member accounts or access to our site from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, or Syria.
   Regards,”

5. Jessica | April 17th, 2009 at 11:23 PM
   

   Just for a little more background, I wrote about Google blocking Chrome in Syria a few months ago here: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/10/google-blocks-chrome-browser-use-in-syria-iran287.html

   Same law being cited. Same contradictions in play.

6. Linkedin Kicks Off Syrian Users! | ArabCrunch « euraktiva | April 18th, 2009 at 1:47 AM
   

   [...] via Linkedin Kicks Off Syrian Users! | ArabCrunch. [...]

7. Gaith Saqer | April 18th, 2009 at 10:43 AM
   

   testing comments

8. Gaith Saqer | April 18th, 2009 at 10:48 AM
   

   Thanks all for ur comments @Jessica, would u like to maybe contact a legal expert to tell us if websites are included in the embargo?

9. Jessica | April 18th, 2009 at 12:14 PM
   

   The legal rationale for these actions is something I still don’t have a handle on and would like to try to understand. I had a difficult time contacting legal experts who knew and/or would comment when I wrote the MediaShift story, except for the one I quoted. I can try to reach him again and see if he has anymore insight…Or perhaps he can point me somewhere.

10. Ahmad Fahad | April 18th, 2009 at 2:23 PM
    

    This is an outrage, my account has also been suspended for about a week now, and when I finally got the reply to the email I sent to support, they told gave me the same reply as you mentioned above.

    I would like to mention that I am an Iraqi, and mostly connect using a proxy, so the suspension is not within the User Terms of Service.

    And to put it simply, I don’t want their stupid service even if they remove the suspension.

11. Towards A Vibrant Startup Based IT Sector Ecosystem in The Arab World | ArabCrunch | April 18th, 2009 at 8:08 PM
    

    [...] Arab governments should 1st buy from regional based IT companies if an alternative exsist, and use Open-Source projects rather than property  based systems, why: 1st Open source is much cheaper, more reliable and the support is available online, and we have the regional talent, 2nd by doing so they support the regional IT sector, 3rd: we are not under the mercy of anyone or any political problem, for example Linkedin blocked Syrian users and also Sudan. [...]

12. Jillian C. York | April 19th, 2009 at 7:51 AM
    

    LinkedIn is now calling it a human error – if you got an email telling you twhat An@s was told, please let me know – LinkedIn is saying that that response was inappropriate for this issue.

13. Gaith Saqer | April 19th, 2009 at 8:05 AM
    

    @jesscia thanx let me know if u get something.

    @Jillian: I got an email from Anas about what he said he forwarded an email from Kelly
    LinkedIn Customer Support. Did Linkedin Told you that? if so please forward the email from them.

14. Jillian C. York | April 19th, 2009 at 8:09 AM
    

    Hi Gait,

    I pointed LinkedIn to Anas’s email address; I believe they were going to contact him themselves. They just issued a statement to say:

    “Some changes made to our site recently resulted in Syrian users being unable to access LinkedIn. In looking into this matter, it has come to our attention that human error led to over compliance with respect to export controls. This issue is being addressed tonight and service to our Syrian users should be restored shortly.”

15. Gaith Saqer | April 19th, 2009 at 8:11 AM
    

    i emailed linkedin and they did not answer me

16. Global Voices Advocacy » Syria: Linkedin Kicks Off Syrian Users! | April 19th, 2009 at 8:54 AM
    

    [...] source in Syria confirmed to ArabCrunch that linkedin is behind the block, the source back this because according to them, when trying to [...]

17. Breaking: Linkedin Bows: Restores Service to Syrian Users, Says a Human error! | ArabCrunch | April 19th, 2009 at 9:33 AM
    

    [...] 2009 – 9:32 am | Arab World, International, USA, Web 2.0 | Permalink After ArabCrunch post about linkedin kicking off Syrian users , which caused an outrage among Arab internet users. Linked  Kay Luo LinkedIn Sr. Director of [...]

18. Ayman Khateeb | April 19th, 2009 at 5:45 PM
    

    Hi Ghaith,

    regarding Corporate Policies it DOES prevent interaction or business with some countries (mentioned above)..

    this is part of the US blockage on those countries, as most of the Amirecan Originated companies SHOULD obey US Government decisions regarding those countries…

    yes it is all about politics, probably no one cares if people get Gmail or not …

    C’mon, they don’t even care for people dying in Gaza, Iraq, Sudan, Sumalia and many other countries where Blockage was conducted for years resulting in many health and living difficulties, and DEATH…

    anyways, goodthing that Linked-in responded quickly and re-evaluated the situation

19. Syria Sanctioned: LinkedIn Blocks Syrian Accounts | April 20th, 2009 at 5:49 AM
    

    [...] issue is still at hand, does politics have a place concerning Internet regulations? According to ArabCrunch, LinkedIn is not the first website to ban access to users in Syria.  Google and Sun Microsystems [...]

20. While White-listing Syria, Linkedin Keeps Sudan Blocked! | ArabCrunch | April 20th, 2009 at 11:25 PM
    

    [...] Linkedin the business social Network blocked Internet users in Syria, and then unblocked them and apologized as ArabCrunch has reported. I was [...]

21. Global Voices Advocacy » While White-listing Syria, Linkedin Keeps Sudan’s Internet Users Blocked! | April 21st, 2009 at 1:48 AM
    

    [...] is a Cross-post from ArabCrunch post with permissions: After Linkedin the business social Network, blocked Internet users in Syria and then unblocked them and apologized (as ArabCrunch has reported.) It was [...]

22. Tarek Kadoura | May 5th, 2009 at 8:33 PM
    

    “The Syrian user fears the day when he cannot access Gmail or Google search engine.”
    on Thursday 30th of April Google web search was blocked in Syria “Forbidden”
    and from now on i will never ever look at any Google stuff again.

23. AN@S | May 5th, 2009 at 8:38 PM
    

    That’s incorrect, Google web search is not blocked in Syria.

24. Jillian C. York | May 5th, 2009 at 8:42 PM
    

    Tarek, you’re still the only person reporting that – other Syrian users are having no trouble accessing Google. Sometimes what you might think is filtering is actually a benign network error.

25. T.K | May 8th, 2009 at 9:16 PM
    

    i don’t think it is a network error, because i tried ultra surf (proxy bypass program) and the searh worked fine, i also tried another ISP without the proxy bypass program and the result was the same “403 Forbidden”, so what do you think the problem is?

26. AN@S | May 10th, 2009 at 8:37 PM
    

    Tarek, what ISPs did u try?

    Regards

27. Tarek Kadoura | May 27th, 2009 at 9:33 AM
    

    ah, i’m sorry for my late reply i had exams.
    after a long search about the error it appears to be a malware
    which redirect the page to another one but i don’t have any security
    program so i searched in the start up programs and it appears that an insecure
    program is running called “SVCNOST.exe” this was the malware because
    my HDD is compressed as well as this file and the original file “SVCHOST.exe”
    stays uncompressed so i deleted “SVCNOST.exe” in system32 folder and now every thing is now ok.
    i owe Google a big apology, Sorry

28. Linkedin, code.google.com and GoDaddy Briefly Unblocked Sudan! -US Congressman Brian Baird: Sanctions do not require blocking! (Exclusive Video Interview) | July 27th, 2009 at 11:33 AM
    

    [...] blocking! (Exclusive Video Interview) 27. July 2009 – 11:33 am | Web 2.0 | Permalink We reported about Linkedin blocking Syria and reported their unblocking with an apology, we also reported that Linkedin is still blocking [...]

29. ArabCrunch | July 27th, 2009 at 11:01 AM
    

    Update: Linkedin, code.google.com and GoDaddy Briefly Unblocked Sudan! -US Congressman Brian Baird: Sanctions… http://arabcrunch.com/2009/07/linkedin-code-googl...

30. LinkedIn Blocks Syrian Accounts | MISEHA | October 11th, 2009 at 1:28 PM
    

    [...] issue is still at hand, does politics have a place concerning Internet regulations? According to ArabCrunch, LinkedIn is not the first website to ban access to users in Syria.  Other US based websites are [...]

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    LinkedIn is not the first website to ban access to users in Syria

32. Post Clinton Internet Freedom Speech:US- SourceForge Blocked Syria, Sudan,Iran Korea & Cuba: Open Source Still Open? | January 23rd, 2010 at 12:55 AM
    

    [...] Linkedin lifted its blocking against Syria after ArabCrunch reported the incident ( and kept it against Sudan ), we heard different reports that American officials are preparing to [...]

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