Pakistani officials have announced that the government has blocked all access to the popular video-sharing site YouTube because there have been a few anti-Islamic videos posted on the site.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) notified all 70 Pakistani ISPs that access to the site is to be blocked indefinitely.
The PTA revealed that the ban was mainly due to a “trailer for an upcoming film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, who has said he plans to release an anti-Quran movie portraying the religion as fascist and prone to inciting violence against women and homosexuals.” Governement officials would not elaborate further.
The group also urged YouTube fans to write to the site and request the removal of all “objectionable movies” saying that the government would unblock the site once the movies were taken down.
The banning follows recent decisions by Turkey and Morocco to block access to the video sharing site, both for similar reasons as Pakistan.
Result for: pakistani officials
Just 3 days after it blocked access to the popular video sharing site, Pakistani officials have lifted the ban on YouTube, citing that the “anti-Islamic” video clips had been removed.
The so-called “anti-Islamic” clips were trailers for an upcoming movie by the Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilder. The movie allegedly will show Islam as a fascist religion and that has proven to incite violence, especially towards women.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) issued notices to all 70 Pakistani ISPs telling them to ban access to the site, but that ban has since been lifted. As the PTA says, the “totally anti-Quranic… very blasphemous” video has been removed despite the fact that other Wilder clips still remain available.
