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).

ISLAMABAD: For those who have been able to access YouTube in the last a few days, the joy is short-lived.

“The reason why YouTube was accessible in certain parts of the country was because of a technical fault which will be fixed,” said Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman on Friday.

The rumours that YouTube was accessible in certain parts of the country during the last a few days are true. According to a senior official in the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), YouTube became accessible through certain Internet Service Providers (ISPs) due to a technical fault.

Minister says issue of YouTube blockade will be addressed through new cyber crime bill
“The news of unblocking YouTube will be announced officially, not done quietly,” said the official.

The minister stated that the YouTube issue was being addressed in the cyber crime bill which she hoped would be approved by the government in about two months.

She explained that the Bill safeguarded the interests of the service providers (Google in this case which owns YouTube) by not

holding it responsible for any blasphemous or anti-state content posted online by individuals/users.

“We saw how a blasphemous content was shown in France and its fallout was seen in the streets of Pakistan. No government will take the responsibility upon itself to unblock YouTube until a concrete solution is found to deal with objectionable content on internet,” she said.

Wahajus Siraj, the convener for Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK), explained how unlike Pakistan countries, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Indonesia and Malaysia, entered into agreements with the USA.

“Under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, these countries are in a position to request service providers such as Google to follow local laws and remove objectionable content from YouTube.” He said Pakistan also needed to enter into a similar agreement to be able to request service providers to block objectionable content.

The news that YouTube had become accessible spread like a wildfire but many internet uses remained disappointed as some could access YouTube and many others could not.

“It was too good to be true but I still immediately switched on my laptop but an error window showed on the screen instead of YouTube,” said medical practitioner Hyra Farooq, who then started calling friends to confirm if the news was correct.

The video sharing website has been banned in Pakistan since September 2012 after the search engine giant refused to take down a blasphemous film triggered protests around the world and in Pakistan.

As the ban on YouTube enters into the third year, internet users in Pakistan continue to access it through alternate channels.

Daily Dawn

The post YouTube ‘unblocking’ short-lived joy appeared first on Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF).

The world has moved on — except for Pakistan, which stubbornly refuses to come to terms with the realities of the age of information, and in doing so, continues to deprive its citizenry of internet freedoms.

We refer, of course, to the blockade on access to the file-sharing site YouTube. Imposed on Sept 12, 2012, this was originally an ill-thought-out fire-fighting measure, but more than two years later, matters stand exactly where they did that September.

Take a look: ‘No solution but to persist with YouTube ban’

If anything, the issue has calcified: the site cannot generally be accessed from this country; those with the ability have found means of bypassing the ban; and the government is still casting about for ways and means to block content it considers blasphemous on the site.

Most recently, on Friday, Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman told the Senate that as a result of the Supreme Court ordering the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority to block all offending material, the matter had been reviewed several times but there was no way to do this other than by imposing a blanket ban on the site.

The irony here is that it was Ms Rehman who, soon after taking office, promised the restoration of the site.

Leave aside the issue of offensive content, what this sorry story speaks volumes for is the state’s attitude towards citizens’ right to attain information — apparently, it really could not care less. In trying to ensure that access to selective content is restricted, it has completely shut down a site that is the gateway to information and entertainment for millions of people.

While other nations factor in and meet the challenges thrown up by the internet and a globalised world — including Muslim countries — Pakistan penalises its citizens under the pretext of protecting them from material they might — might — find offensive. Today it is YouTube; tomorrow it might be the internet in its entirety. And, the acerbic would argue, why stop here?

This piece of absurdity has to come to an end. Of the various potential solutions that have been thrown up during these two years, the most feasible might be the one suggested by Google itself but which the government does not seem to have pondered over much: the display of interstitial warnings on pages that contain objectionable material.

This, as the Lahore High Court observed last year while hearing a petition on the issue, would pin liability on the user who “consciously and deliberately ignore[d] the warning page” before accessing content that is offensive or in contravention of local laws.

The approach Pakistan has taken so far is not just laughably ineffective, it is indicative of just how out of touch the state is with technological realities.

Dawn

Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman told the Senate on Friday that the Supreme Court had ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block offending material on YouTube or any other website. She said the matter was reviewed several times, but the situation was effectively still the same. Technical experts, she insisted, also agreed that there was no solution which could guarantee 100 per cent blockage of objectionable content on YouTube.

However, the minister’s remarks seemingly contradict the gist of a Lahore High Court (LHC) order from May 13, 2014 in the matter of Bytes For All VS the Federation of Pakistan – commonly known as the YouTube case. In the final order, a copy of which is available with Dawn, LHC judges Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Atir Mehmood noted that the minister was directed to hold a meeting of information technology (IT) experts and the PTA technical team to evolve a strategy to block controversial material from YouTube.

While the minister told the court even then that no known technical solution is available to ensure 100 per cent blocking of such content, the committee of IT experts proposed three options: blocking all access to YouTube (the status quo); barring YouTube access on secure HTTPS protocols and shifting it to HTTP, which will allow for blocking access to individual videos; and, the display of ‘interstitial warnings’ on pages that contain objectionable content.

The court concluded that the third option seemed most feasible, observing that in this manner, “a person will have to consciously and deliberately ignore the warning page and make an effort to obtain access to [the] controversial site”.

However, the Supreme Court order of Sept 17, 2012, which was also cited by the minister on the floor of the Senate, still remains the major stumbling block.

Yasser Latif Hamdani, the counsel representing Bytes For All in the YouTube case, told Dawn that the government was trying to sidestep the real issue by not seeking clarification on the Supreme Court order. “The question really is whether, even today, the objectionable materials are 100 per cent blocked. Is YouTube not accessible through various other methods,” he asked, rhetorically.

“By the logic the government is applying in this case, they should block the entire Internet because ultimately that is what this erroneous interpretation of the order means. What the government should do is seek a clarification of the SC order, which it doesn’t want to,” he said.

In a written reply to the Senate question, submitted on behalf of the minister in-charge of the Cabinet Division, it was stated, “As an alternative measure, the government of Pakistan is in process of providing intermediary liability protection for internet content providers through the Prevention of Electronic Crime Bill 2014, which will then be a consideration for localisation of YouTube in Pakistan subject to it being a business case for Google. This, in itself, will not guarantee access to YouTube in Pakistan.”

However, Bytes For All Country Director Shahzad Ahmed told Dawn that the localisation of YouTube was not a solution, because that would make the site subject to censor and scrutiny under local laws, allowing the government to filter any content which they don’t want to see online.

“Such measures are very problematic in the context of local laws, which are vague in their terminology and conflict with the constitution’s chapters on fundamental rights,” he said.

The government, he said, looks at the Internet from security-tinted lenses. “They do not see the educational, developmental or social value of the Internet and unless their perspective changes, we will continue to see more filtering, blocking and persecution of individuals online,” he said.

Dawn

Saadullah Khan and others petitioners submitted that the PTA had banned over 1,000 websites including YouTube since September 2012 because of blasphemous contents.

They submitted that the censorship of video-sharing platforms like YouTube had a disastrous impact on Pakistani students, teachers, entrepreneurs and other professionals who used the website for educational, religious, commercial or entertainment purposes.

They stated that the PTA, like many other countries, could ban specific objectionable and blasphemous URLs instead of placing a blanket ban on YouTube.

Many countries with a Muslim majority banned the URLs with the objectionable film, but only Pakistan persisted with a blanket ban on YouTube depriving the citizens of their fundamental rights.

They requested the court to direct the PTA to lift the ban and end the censorship that deprived citizens of their rights.

The petitioners also filed an application submitting that the government was likely to ban more websites and added they would be studying through online courses during summer vacations, the blockade would adversely affect their educational activities.

They prayed to the court to restrain the authorities concerned from blocking more websites.

The court was also requested to restrain the federal authorities from blocking IP addresses and declare the censorship and the arbitrary blanket ban on websites including YouTube a blatant violation of the fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan.

The court issued notices to the information ministry, the PTA and others seeking their comments by August 12.

The News

‘The ban on Youtube has not been lifted despite the fact that Senate and National Assembly’s Committees on Human Rights have given approval to lift the ban. The Lahore High Court has also ordered to lift the ban on Youtube,’ she deplored.

‘Youtube is an important social media website. In today’s world this website is a source of knowledge and information. Pakistan is the only country which has imposed ban on the Youtube. We have joined the nations which have adopted 3G and 4G means of communication. I appeal to the prime minister to lift the ban on the Youtube considering publics feeling and need,’ Senator Nasree Jalil urged the prime minister.

The News

The protests that followed the posting on YouTube of a blasphemous video were violent and destructive — and carefully coordinated and orchestrated. The silent evasion of the ban by millions, far more numerically than ever participated in any demonstration, is entirely spontaneous, and in that sense may be taken as ‘the will of the people’. No matter that a resolution is passed and that millions of internet users have made their wishes known, a resolution is not binding on the government and there is no indication that the government is likely to respond to popular sentiment.

The minister of state for health services (whose remit ironically doesn’t include website bans) made this clear to the House, saying that the government was interested to find a solution to the problem but that it was ‘sensitive’ — a statement that comes across as a delaying tactic and indicates that the government does not want to be responsible for unblocking the site. The ban has now been in place for 588 days and it must also be noted that YouTube is not blocked even in Saudi Arabia. The website has many advantages including being useful for educational purposes as well as media and music, which the ban is depriving people of. It is high time that the government responded to the will of the people and unblocked this website. There is simply no sense to the ban any more.

Express Tribune

During today’s National Assembly session, chaired by Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, MNA Shazia Marri belonging to the Pakistan People Party (PPP) submitted a resolution demanding the lifting of the ban on YouTube which was unanimously accepted by the lower house of parliament.

Ms Marri had said that the government should lift ban on YouTube as soon as possible.

She added that people were using proxy servers to watch YouTube while the government should not adopt any double standards in this regard.

In response to the resolution, Minister of State for Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, Saira Afzal Tarar, assured the house that the government would lift the ban on YouTube soon.

Tarar said that it was the collective responsibility of all the parties to discuss the matter in detail and requested that the leaders of the parliamentary parties should suggest the names of the members from their parties to take part in the discussions in this regard.

The video-sharing website has been blocked in Pakistan since September 2012 when the then prime minister belonging to the PPP ordered its shutdown over its failure to take down the “Innocence of Muslims” movie that sparked furious protests around the world.

Despite the removal of the contentious video and claims by the government, the video-sharing remains banned in the country.

DAWN

A resolution, which was passed unanimously, said the ban be overturned as no such provision was in place in any other Muslim country.

Committee chairman Afrasiab Khattak of the Awami National Party, while reading the resolution, pointed out: “There is no ban on YouTube in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.”

Members of the human rights committee expressed concern over the long-running ban and maintained that YouTube could still be accessed through proxies and other means.

“The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority chairman has already told (us) that there is no advantage of the ban,” Khattak said. Committee members noted that Internet users could still access restricted videos, making the ban irrelevant. They also resolved to raise the issue on the floor of the Senate.

YouTube has been blocked since September 2012, when it refused to take down a film that was offensive to Muslims and had sparked protests around the world.

The committee was also told by the Sindh home secretary that the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance had been implemented in Sindh, angering some senators.

The MQM’s Nasreen Jalil said that more than 45 workers of her party had gone missing in recent days, while 20 had been killed ‘extra-judicially.’

Her statement was seconded by the PPP’s Farhatullah Babar, who said that following the implementation of the PPO, there had been increasing reports of extrajudicial killings in Karachi.

Committee members also condemned the attack on journalist Hamid Mir, calling it ‘an attack on freedom of expression’. The senators called on the government to take stringent action against those responsible. “The government should act to stem the rising tide of violence against journalists in the country,” PPP Senator Sehar Kamran said, adding that “media houses should also avoid levelling allegations against security agencies before an inquiry is conducted”.

The committee reacted sharply to reports of cannibalism in Bhakkar. “The government should either amend existing laws or introduce legislation against cannibalism,” the committee chairman said. The committee unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Punjab government to act swiftly against the two brothers accused of eating human flesh.

DAWN

Pew Research Center revealed that some nations, such as Venezuela and Egypt, have higher levels of support for internet freedom than might be anticipated, given the degree of online penetration in the country. Venezuela topped the list with 69% wanting freedom of the internet.

Most of the other countries in the poll said that they wanted an internet free from censorship. Pakistani government banned YouTube after the showing off what was termed as a blasphemous film; however, even though the film was removed the ban was not lifted.

In response to the ongoing ban on YouTube for the past 17 months, singer Ali Gul Pir released a song Kholo BC, to mock the government for its inability to lift the ban on such a beneficial online platform. With the main focus on the YouTube ban, Ali and his fellow artiste Adil Omer touched upon various issues related to Pakistani society, its youth and the dichotomy present in the behavior of its ruling elite.

According to the US-based Pakistani website More Magazine, this song is perhaps the most controversial song released by Ali till date and is almost matched to the norm breaking music that was once produced by the Beygairat Brigade, whose songs got banned in cyber space because of their mockery of the Pakistan army.

A censorship-free internet is a priority for most people in emerging countries, especially the younger population, according to the Pew report.

Pew Research Center interviewed nearly 22,000 people in 24 emerging and developing countries. In 22 of those 24 countries, majority of respondents think it is important that people have access to the internet without government censorship. The strength of censorship opposition varied depending on the country, as well as other factors. Support of Internet freedom is prevalent in Latin American countries as well as Lebanon and Egypt, Pew revealed.

Support for internet freedom tends to be strong in nations with high rates of internet penetration, such as Chile and Argentina, where roughly two-thirds of the population is online. It is less common in nations with lower penetration rates, like Indonesia and Uganda. However, two countries bucked that trend; internet-freedom support in Russia (63%) and Pakistan (22%) came in low compared to the level of internet penetration in these countries.

Age is also a major factor; in 14 of the 24 countries surveyed, people aged from 18-29 are more likely than those of 50 or older to think a free internet is important. “These age differences suggest that support for internet freedom will become more widespread with the passage of time,” said Pew in its report.

And in several nations, those with higher incomes are particularly likely to consider internet-freedom a priority. For instance, 71% of high-income Kenyans say internet freedom is important, compared with 44% of people in the low-income category. Nearly eight in 10 Russians in the high-income category (78%) believe it is important, while only 52% of those with low-incomes hold this view.

Express Tribune