Governments of Pakistan in the last decade have shown a propensity to inflict self-harm when it comes to new technologies, particularly the internet. The YouTube ban that was imposed more than two years ago has become an irrelevant laughing-stock. The ban has given rise to a reported acceleration in the development of proxies that may be downloaded and deployed to circumvent the ban. Any internet user who wants to can view whatever content he or she may wish — including all the banned pornographic sites, overdoses of blasphemy and any number of banned hate-speech websites. The blasphemous clip that started this farrago was removed by Google after a US court ruling, but is still available in a shortened version for those determined to see it — and not only on YouTube.

In an attempt to repair this shot in the foot, the government has now announced that it is developing legislation to ‘localise’ YouTube in Pakistan, bringing it within the ambit of local law, as it is currently operating under US law. A draft bill has been tabled with the National Assembly standing committee on IT and assuming it is passed, the government can then work with Google in order to gain the rights to locally manage the site — which may or may not be a good idea depending on one’s view of the ever-expanding censorship of media in the country. The government hopes that this will give it the opportunity to block “objectionable material” — and if it believes that, it is living in a fool’s paradise. YouTube is an increasingly essential global resource in the education matrix from pre-school to PhD studies. Pakistan already has an education crisis of immense depth and breadth, and banning YouTube feeds into the educational deficits. Vast libraries of free educational material are denied to our students — to say nothing of the innocent and non-objectionable pleasures that may be found on YouTube. Finding a face-saving way of getting YouTube back online for the average internet user should be a priority. We await with interest.

Express Tribune

The post Will YouTube ever be unblocked? appeared first on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF).

Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has blocked almost everything on the Internet in the name of security or morality. Who gave PTA this right to suffocate us? As a free citizen I have the right and authority to surf and watch whatever I want to. The PTA has no right to stop me in the name of moral policing. Being a student, I need to surf a lot of things, specially YouTube which helps us in finding a lot of information relevant to our studies.

By restricting this website, I face a lot of issues and without any doubt we all find some way or another to open these banned and restricted websites through proxies which take us to other issues like virus, spamming etc. But who cares if a large majority of educated class is suffering because of a few Islamists who have nothing better to do than close websites.

I have not seen anyone around me practicing Islam properly all I have seen in Pakistan is people hating each other and protesting against each other’s beliefs and faith. We are religious in name only and all we do is ban unnecessary things for months years for no good reason. The religious extremist should find some more practical way of enforcing Islam than intruding into personal choices as we all have the right to chose the right or wrong path.

ANUM SHIVANI,
Karachi

The Nation