[myf01d]

> corruption/fascism

that's what we call national security/stability here in the middle east :D. Seriously though, the government and the three telecom companies Orange/Vodafone/Etisalat falsely think that this is a win win situation to save the telecom industry and national security, however when it reall comes to terrorism, you can organize a terror attack using facebook chat without anyone knowing anything about you, maybe even after the attack if you are paranoid enough and take all social engineering precautions.

[nindalf]

FWIW this happens in other Arab countries too. In Dubai the same carrier Etisalat got a ban on the audio functionality of mobile apps - no calls on Whatsapp, Viber etc. You can still text though.