Pakistan's Internet censorship

[SEAL]

My friend from EU informed me they put Pakistani flag on the Dp of that page Facebook ban in Pakistan hurts them a lot.

 

[PakShaheen79]

It's sad pakistan doesnt have free speech

And its sad that in West Muslims are deprived of their right to dress the way they want.

Its also violation of human rights, and kind of freedom of expression

 

[WAQAS119]

Anyways. Congrats to all those who were offended. The page has been removed by facebook.

now you see!!!! Facebook must have accrued some big loss. Figures i presented might be wrong but loss was their.

 

[T-Faz]

I hate to say it but this is probably the first time i'm in agreement with majority of indian members in a thread

Traitor, seems like you have defected.

 

[Barrett]

It was NOT banned. Some people were spreading lies without varification

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube indefinitely in a bid to contain “blasphemous” material, officials said on Thursday.

The blockade came hours after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed Internet service providers to stop access to social network site Facebook indefinitely on Wednesday because of an online competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

Any representation of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is deemed un-Islamic and blasphemous by Muslims.

Wahaj-us-Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, an Internet service provider, said PTA issued an order late on Wednesday seeking an “immediate” block of YouTube.

“It was a serious instruction as they wanted us to do it quickly and let them know after that,” he told Reuters.

YouTube was also blocked in the Muslim country in 2007 for about a day for what it called un-Islamic videos.

PTA spokesman, Khurram Ali Mehran, said the action was taken after the authority determined that content considered blasphemous by devout Muslims was being posted on the website.

“Before shutting down (YouTube), we did try just to block particular URLs or links, and access to 450 links on the Internet were stopped, but the blasphemous content kept appearing so we ordered a total shut down,” he said.

He regretted that the administrators at the Facebook and YouTube had not taken the content off despite Pakistan's protests.

“Their attitude was in contravention to international resolutions and their own policies advertised on the Web for the general public,” Mehran said.

The PTA issued a statement Thursday saying, “PTA would welcome the concerned authorities of Facebook and YouTube to contact the PTA for resolving the issue at the earliest which ensures religious harmony and respect.”

The PTA decision to block all of Facebook also cut Pakistanis off from groups and pages dedicated to opposing the competition, which have thousands more supporters than the competition does.

Along with the ban, some popular websites, including Wikipedia and Flickr, have been inaccessible in Pakistan since Wednesday night. But the spokesman said it happened purely due to a technical reason and no orders were passed against them.

He said the authority was monitoring other websites as well.

“BLACKBERRY SERVICES”

Siraj said the blocking of the two websites would cut up to a quarter of total Internet traffic in Pakistan.

“It'll have an impact on the overall Internet traffic as they eat up 20 to 25 per cent of the country's total 65 giga-bytes traffic,” he said.

After the PTA's directives against Facebook and YouTube, Pakistani mobile companies blocked all Blackberry services on Wednesday night but restored services used by non-corporate users later on Thursday.

“We have intimated to the Blackberry service administrators in Canada to block them and once it's done, the service will be restored fully,” said Farhan Butt, an official at Pakistan's biggest cellular company, Mobilink.

The closure of services worried Blackberry users.

“The biggest concern for us ... is the delay in decision making,” said Zahid Sheikh, head of information technology department at National Foods Limited in Karachi city.

“Our top officials and senior management are not always in office. They do travel and work from remote locations, and with this shut down, they can't access emails.”

Publications of similar cartoons in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked deadly protests in Muslim countries. Around 50 people were killed during violent protests in Muslim countries in 2006 over the cartoons, five of them in Pakistan.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on Denmark's embassy in Islamabad in 2008, killing six people, saying it was in revenge for publication of the caricatures.

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Pakistan blocks YouTube over "blasphemous" material

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

its not banned ,

 

[FreekiN]

Welcome to Fascist Pakistan!

Youtube - DOWN
Facebook - DOWN
Flickr - DOWN
Wikipedia - DOWN

prophetofdoom - ONLINE
AnsweringIslam - ONLINE

Something tells me they aren't banning these websites for some 'blasphemous pictures.'

 

[Hyde]

Just like i said in the morning

i think it will be a technical fault. The government trying to ban FB and Youtube and some other site too being infect due to the technitions playng with the IP addresses. Happens sometimes just wait for a whle and hopefully it should be up again and which internet connection are you using in Pakistan

 

[All-Green]

Welcome to Fascist Pakistan!

Youtube - DOWN
Facebook - DOWN
Flickr - DOWN
Wikipedia - DOWN

Something tells me they aren't banning these websites for some 'blasphemous pictures.'

Wikipedia is working.

Update1...
No it is not...the main page opened so i though it was ok.
Sorry for my bad information.

Update2...
Working but a bit slow...
Final update from my end.

 

[Hyde]

Who said Facebook remove this page?

It is still there - i just checked it

 

[T-Faz]

Welcome to Fascist Pakistan!

Youtube - DOWN
Facebook - DOWN
Flickr - DOWN
Wikipedia - DOWN

prophetofdoom - ONLINE
AnsweringIslam - ONLINE

Something tells me they aren't banning these websites for some 'blasphemous pictures.'

Youtube - DailyMotion (better and more faster)
Facebook - Google Wave, Orkut, MySpace, Hi5 and many others are still availabe.
Flickr - Photoshare, Photostream and what not are still online
Wikipedia - Encyclopedia, regional variations available.

Unfortunately you have a narrow scope of things and it would be best you take your stupid logic out of this thread.

I agree that websites should not be banned but to get the message across, harsh actions have to be taken and they pay off. It will be up in to time.

Fascism does not occur if a couple of sites are banned, your argument is flawed, immature and literally stupid.

Banning one website is different than banning everything within that category, when other options are available, you should utilize them.

 

[All-Green]

Who said Facebook remove this page?

It is still there - i just checked it

Since you are not happy with it, might i suggest that you do not visit the page, at least not today when it is the day they are celebrating as draw Mohammad day.

 

[khanz]

It's sad pakistan doesnt have free speech

It does have free speech check out any pak newspaper, blog,magazine, tv channel or talk show you find plenty of stuff bashing the president,government and policies etc problem is some people are violent,overly sensitive and don't know how to ignore things and pak government being weak caves in easily to their demands and goes overboard with censorship but free speech also comes with responsibility you shouldn't do it just for the sake of offending people it's not free speech if your just insulting a person's religion .Holocaust denial can send you to jail in europe doesn't that mean europe doesn't have it either or is it just free speech when it comes to drawing cartoons of islam ?

 

[democracyspeaks]

Latest news the FB draw page is back

 

[Skeptic]

Who said Facebook remove this page?

It is still there - i just checked it

Maybe its the Indian ISP. I am immediately diverted to facebook homepage when i click on the link. Even pasting on the address bar has the same effect. I can see a google cached image but not actual page.