Saudi telco Mobily has blocked its customers from using SMS to vote in the reality TV show Star Academy after religious scholars condemned the show as “culturally inappropriate”.
“We will definitely lose money, but how much, I don’t know,” said Mobily spokesman Humoud Alghodaini. “If we don’t (stop messaging) it would backfire on us and affect our brand.” According to the report a fatwa (religious decree) was issued “last year”, which from the date on the article means 2004, which is not a particularly quick response.
These concerns are becoming significant for telcos as they move from offering a connection to offering content…and even when the telcos do offer merely a connection their brand is related to the content anyway. There has been a lot of talk about this sort of thing in relation to US telcos… (via Textually)
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