If you live in UAE, then the internet just got even more boring for you, with UAE banning Facebook due to ’sex clubs’ and unislamic lifestyle groups on Facebook. Facebook joins a long list of popular sites blocked in the UAE including: Flickr, Twitter, Orkut, BoingBoing, YouTube, Metacafe, MySpace.

If the ‘unislamic’ nature of the site is what leads to these bans, then I wonder how many Islamic terrorism related sites are blocked by UAE!? But I feel these bans are superficial, and probably there to impress the Islamic fundamentalists, because within UAE, in the free trade zones like Media City, and Internet City, none of these sites are blocked.

Now, if you are not in one of these privileged areas, then here are some ways you can access the blocked sites:

• If possible, VPN into an outside network, and if the VPN server is not blocked, you will be able to access all the sites.
• For Flickr access try the Access Flickr Firefox add-on which is supposed to circumvent filters in Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, China, and other banned locations.