ISLAMABAD: The government told the Senate on Friday that there was no way to block blasphemous content on video-sharing website YouTube without banning the entire site itself. However, the fact that hundreds of Internet users across the country continue to bypass the official ban and access YouTube through their computers, smartphones and tablets on a daily basis, flies in the
The blockage of the popular video-sharing website, YouTube, which was shut down in Pakistan on September 17, 2012, to prevent access to a blasphemous video continues. Video excerpts from the aforementioned movie sparked protests and violence across the Muslim world. During one of the spates of violence, the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, was killed along with three of
It has been two years since Pakistan banned YouTube, the popular video-sharing platform. Last government imposed the ban; this government continues to enforce that. No exit is in sight. A few civil society organisations have been commendably campaigning for YouTube restoration on legal grounds, but their efforts have so far been stonewalled by the Federal Government. Why is absence of
KARACHI: Two years, a new government and the promise of change, and at least 20 court hearings later, internet users from Pakistan are still denied access to YouTube. This restriction of access has become the symbol of a state which has increasingly become obsessed with controlling the online space in a non-transparent manner. The ban had been imposed on September
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday sought comments from the information technology secretary and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman on a petition challenging a blanket ban on YouTube, a video-sharing website. A division bench headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan was seized with the hearing of the petition jointly filed by as many as 24 citizens, including students,
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
Classical ballet has always been popular with our daughter. She will watch it for hours, imitating the dancers with a developing confidence and awareness of the storylines of the more popular ballets, with Swan Lake being the long-time favourite. For the umpteenth time, we watched the finale and compared different ballet companies’ versions of the choreography. All very innocent and
EVOLVING situations require constantly evolving regulatory mechanisms, and one area where Pakistan is lacking is in terms of internet safety — even though the World Wide Web and its benefits can hardly be said to be new realities. Last year, the Federal Investigation Agency received more than 1,000 complaints regarding cyber crime, particularly malicious stalking, the hijacking of social media
Pakistan enjoys nothing more than proving the wisdom behind the cliché ‘cutting off your nose to spite your face’. It is entirely appropriate that the phrase can be traced back to a time in Europe when women would mutilate themselves in order to protect their ‘purity’, since all our most self-destructive actions involve misbegotten notions of honour and morality. For
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