Even though no news update on this yet, it looks like Pakistan has also YouTube along with Facebook (Facebook was banned on the order of Lahore High Court which was issued yesterday. Visit http://islamicb.blogspot.com/2010/05/pakistan-shuts-down-facebook-over-draw.html or http://islamicb.blogspot.com/2010/05/pakistan-court-orders-facebook-ban.html for more information) the reason being the same, i.e. in protest to Everyone Draw Mohammed Day. See the following screenshots.
Here is what I get on logging onto Facebook:
And here is what I get on logging onto Youtube:
Pakistan blocks access to YouTube
Pakistan
has banned the popular video sharing website
YouTube indefinitely in a bid to contain "sacrilegious"
material, officials have said.
The
censorship on Thursday came a day after the Pakistan Telecommunication
Authority (PTA) ordered internet service providers to block access
to the social network site Facebook because of an online competition
to draw the Prophet Mohammed.
"We
have blocked YouTube. At first we blocked the URL (which was carrying this
material (of the prophet), but there were a lot of complaints about the
content," PTA spokesman Khurram Mehran said.
Another
PTA official said the action was taken after the agency determined that
some caricatures of the prophet were transferred from Facebook to
YouTube.
Reduced traffic
Wahaj-us-Siraj,
the CEO of Nayatel, a major internet service provider, confirmed that PTA
had ordered the ban on YouTube indefinitely.
"They
ordered the full YouTube site blocked. So that order was implemented by the
internet service providers and internet backbone providers," Siraj said.
He
told the AFP news agency that blocking Facebook and YouTube would
slash up to a quarter of all internet traffic in Pakistan.
"These
two sites take 20 to 25 per cent of the country's total internet traffic
so we are seeing a drop in internet traffic," he said.
The
PTA had blocked Facebook on Wednesday obeying a Pakistani court
decision to ban the site following complaints over a user-generated contest
page that encourged members to post caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.
Any images
or pictures that depict any of Islam's prophets or
messengers are deemed forbidden and blasphemous by Islamic law.
Barry Fox, a technology analyst in London, said the "move can only be a temporary measure".
"We're in this for a long haul because you have a basic conflict here," Fox told Al Jazeera.
Barry Fox, a technology analyst in London, said the "move can only be a temporary measure".
"We're in this for a long haul because you have a basic conflict here," Fox told Al Jazeera.
"Internet
is about free traffic of information round the world without barriers, and some
country governments and religious leaders are gainst the free traffic of all
information.
"So it really is very hard to see how there's going to be any easy outcome to this. And I feel we're in for a long-haul dispute where a lot of people are going to have to learn to compromise."
But Fox said people who are "really tech-savvy" would still be able to get round the barriers created by the government.
"They'll use ... proxy servers but what this means is that their system redirects barriers round other countries," he said.
"So people, if want they want to access banned sites, they'll be able to do so. However, they put themselves at the risk of detection by what is the equivalent in China of the internet police who, when they find people getting round these barriers, they are liable to be prosecuted - and that's the big risk."
"So it really is very hard to see how there's going to be any easy outcome to this. And I feel we're in for a long-haul dispute where a lot of people are going to have to learn to compromise."
But Fox said people who are "really tech-savvy" would still be able to get round the barriers created by the government.
"They'll use ... proxy servers but what this means is that their system redirects barriers round other countries," he said.
"So people, if want they want to access banned sites, they'll be able to do so. However, they put themselves at the risk of detection by what is the equivalent in China of the internet police who, when they find people getting round these barriers, they are liable to be prosecuted - and that's the big risk."
Public anger
Al
Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, said: "It
[sacrilegious content] has disturbed and infuriated a lot of people in the
deeply conservative country.
"And
so now many people are saying that they will block Facebook completely.
"The
court has said that this (ban) will continue until the 31st of May. However,
after the 31st there will be a decision.
"But
there is already a growing number of people who are saying it (Facebook)
should be banned completely.
"Hundreds
of people have been protesting and it is likely to continue for a few more
days."
Pakistan blocked Youtube in
2007 for about a year in a similar protest against "blasphemous"
videos.
Click here to Subscribe news feed from "IslamicB", so that you do not miss out anything that can be valuable to you !!
0 comments:
Post a Comment