| Kippreport.com

Saudi’s “pure” YouTube

August 30, 2009 10:14 by Aarti Nagraj

A group of people in Saudi have developed a new website called NaqaTube (Naqa meaning “pure” in Arabic) in order to show only “clean” content from video sharing website YouTube, reports Arab News. The site censors video clips that are against the government, individuals and scholars, or which “mocks people in general,” says the report. Women’s images and music are forbidden. The site instead hosts clips of Arab scholars giving lectures and Islamic discourse.

One of the moderators of the website, who did not wish to reveal his name, told the paper that clips on NaqaTube are religiously safe, and content which is considered inappropriate is edited out before being uploaded.

He said that the website’s logo is “Participate With Us In a Clean Website.”

“Our dream is to decline the number of visitors to YouTube. Our website has received from 5,000 to 6,000 visitors since its launch two months ago,” he added.

The website also includes a new feature in which visitors will be able to edit their own clips before they are uploaded.

“Our plan in the future is to include other languages,” he said, adding, “We are promoting a moderate Islam, nothing extreme.”

According to reports, the kingdom also recently started the “Saudi flagger campaign” to scan YouTube for videos that are deemed offensive in the country. When any inappropriate material is found, a task force flags the video, and requests the site’s administrator to take it off the site.

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Tags: censorship, Human rights watch, internet, naqatube, Saudi, twitter, Youtube