Additionally, objectionable content using secure protocols could not be blocked, said sources, adding that everyday more and more content was being shifted to secure protocols. Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has identified the URLs of obnoxious videos, flagged the links and passed on the same to Google Inc. All the videos flagged by PTA, were responded by Google with the warning message displayed on every video. Up till now 975 blasphemous videos displayed the warning message and the flag is being raised every day.

A US Appeals Court on February 26, 2014, ordered Google Inc to remove from its Youtube video-sharing website anti-Islamic film “Innocence of Muslims” on a copyright issue. However, the US court of Appeals in its order on February 28, 2014 had modified its earlier decision and allowed Google to display copies of “Innocence of Muslims” that does not include Cindy Garcia’s performance. The movie is still available on Youtube, sources maintained. The Supreme Court in constitutional Petition No 104 of 2012 ordered to block offending material on Youtube website or any other website. The government was making efforts to comply with the SC decision and Youtube would be opened after the Court order, said State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman while briefing a parliamentary panel.

After blasphemous movie was uploaded on Youtube in September 2012, the Ministry of IT approached the management of Google and Facebook. In response, Google refused to block the blasphemous movie links/URLs in the absence of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. However, the management of Facebook agreed to block secured website links. Due to bulk of blasphemous links/URLs and considering law & order situation in the country, the YouTube (www.youtube. com) at IP level was blocked on September 17, 2012 on the instructions of Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC). In order to monitor blasphemous and pornographic material on the internet, the PTA has established a Web Analysis Directorate. In addition, a Web Analysis Cell “WAC” has been created to proactively monitor and identify the blasphemous and pornographic content. The objectionable sites are then blocked and up till now 18,828 links have been blocked.

The PTA has co-ordinated deployment of a technical filtering solution at the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and TWA, which are the bandwidth providers. The PTA has interacted with the management of “Facebook” and “Twitter”, and arrived at an arrangement whereby the objectionable URLs being reported to them are blocked. The PTA has coordinated with “Google”, with special reference to activations of warnings on the reported blasphemous videos of “Innocence of Muslims”.

Business Recorder

ISLAMABAD: There is no foolproof way to block access to a video that resulted in the ban on YouTube in Pakistan, according to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Dr Ismail Shah. Dr Shah’s statement on Monday came a day before the Lahore High Court hears a petition seeking the court’s directive to the government to allow access to YouTube, blocked since September 2012.

The court will hear a petition filed by Bytes for All, a non-government organisation. The petitioner submitted that any filtering and blocking of information online is counter-productive and predatory. Dr Shah and officials from the ministry of information and technology will appear in court today to give a policy statement on whether the offending video – entitled The Innocence of Muslims – can be blocked.

“The PTA has tried to find a technical solution to block the video while keeping YouTube open, but it is next to impossible and this is what I will inform the court,” said Dr Shah, while addressing the first national 3G/4G seminar, held in Islamabad. The PTA can create a warning page that opens prior to the video, he suggested.

Shah said the video was uploaded on hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPs) – a communication protocol over a computer network which cannot be removed except by blocking the website. Shah will inform the court that the PTA cannot remove the video because of technical obstacles. At the end of the day, he said, the government and court will have to make a decision.

“We have looked into practices in other Muslim countries as well and found that they too could not block the video,” he said. He explained that the video is accessible in Qatar, preceded by a warning, a system that Pakistan could replicate. “Even if it is not available on YouTube, it will be available on other websites,” the chairman said. According to the PTA’s findings, there are 48,000 copies of the video accessible online currently. He explained that the Pakistani government had contacted Google Inc in order to remove the offending video, but was refused.

Dr Shah added that religious scholars had advised him that the government’s current strategy was wrong, prescribing that messages and videos spreading a positive message of Islam should be uploaded to counter negative portrayals.

3G Auction

While bidding for the auction of 3G and 4G licences will take part next month, Dr Shah said he was not confident of any new entrants taking part in the process. He said new entrants were requesting conditions such as a period of one year in which existing bidders should be barred from rolling out 3G services in the market, aimed at allowing new entrants time to gain a foothold in the market. “My assessment is that it will be difficult for a new player to enter the process,” he said.

Express Tribune