A couple of days ago i noticed something off with blahaj.zone. I couldn’t see images posted by users on blahaj, so i thought it was a problem on their side.

Well guess fucking what? After 3 days, it was STILL broken, so i opened it and…

Blocked. They fucking blocked blahaj.zone. Actually beyond parody🤦‍♂️ Why? What was the point? there’s trans content literally everywhere on lemmy. what’s next, block them all? So now if i want to see a post by a user on blahaj, i have to turn on my VPN (protonvpn.com is also blocked in saudi, jfc) just to see it. Fuck this place. 🙄

I swear a couple of days ago it worked. This is a mild annoyance (hence the community) but still.

It’s so over guys, MBS said no more 196 😔

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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    5 hours ago

    Well its Saudi Arabia after all. It isn’t exactly known for being all that high on the freedom index. I’m sure you realize that though.

    From a technical level there are ways to bypass censorship. The thing to keep in mind is that Saudi Arabia doesn’t have any rights for citizens. The law can be enforced arbitrarily and you could just disappear one day. If you are looking for technical information on avoiding censorship I can try to help.

    • fxomt@lemm.eeOP
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      5 hours ago

      Yeah, but it’s a little weird how they’d go out of their way to ban such a small and obscure website. I didn’t even know the feds knew about lemmy. Besides, it’s been fine for a long time for me.

      But this was bound to happen eventually, i guess :/

      The thing to keep in mind is that Saudi Arabia doesn’t have any rights for citizens. The law can be enforced arbitrarily and you could just disappear one day

      I am well aware of that :( Hopefully i can disappear out of here before they make me.

      • Jarix@lemmy.world
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        57 minutes ago

        I didn’t even know the feds knew about lemmy.

        Probably just an automated list of blocking then. At least I would assume theres block lists floating around at those levels

      • Harvey656@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        Stay safe friend.

        Without giving away potentially anything dangerous to yourself, in case they are watching. Any idea what place you intend on disappearing too?

        • fxomt@lemm.eeOP
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          3 hours ago

          I plan on trying to apply for asylum somewhere. There’s a lot of useful information for saudi dissidents on a forum that i won’t mention the name of, but from it my choices are: Canada, Australia, UK, America, France, Switzerland, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Ireland.

          All of these, i’d give a kidney to be in anyway. But if i’ll make this once in a lifetime choice, i might as well choose what’s best for me. A big problem is finance and racism. The western world isn’t friendly to Arabs from what i’ve seen, so i’d probably need to lay low.

          I used to want to go to Germany, but this ominous message on the forum made me think twice. They leave it at that, but it’s unsettling to me.

          • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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            4 hours ago

            Do you have any technical skills? If you can sell yourself as an asset you are going to do considerably better.

            • fxomt@lemm.eeOP
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              4 hours ago

              Yes, it’s a WIP for me, but i’m improving my rust and OCaml skills, but they have a struggling job market.

              • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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                3 hours ago

                You could also look into trade school. In the US at least there are a lot of people desperate for electricians plumbers and other related jobs.

                • fxomt@lemm.eeOP
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                  3 hours ago

                  Haven’t heard of them till now, not necessarily my hobby but i’ll think of it as a backup, thank you.