The decision by the UAE and Saudi Arabia to suspend BlackBerry data services from October has been widely reported, so I won't repeat the details here. But it's a tussle that has far-reaching implications. The Gulf states, as I've said before, want the economic benefits of modernity (and the image that goes with it) but there's a cultural block which means they try to exclude the bits of modernity that they don't like.

It simply won't work. Freedom to access and share information is part of the package, and you either accept the whole package or you don't. You can't cherry-pick.

So far, Research in Motion, the Canadian company behind BlackBerry, seems to be standing firm. It can probably afford to do so, since its sales in the Middle East and Africa are less than 1% of its global total. Meanwhile, users in the UAE and Saudi Arabia – including visitors to those countries – can direct their wrath against the governments.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 3 August 2010.