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 …
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 …
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 …
IT’S been two years since the ban, and everyone seems to have forgotten. Those who know how continue accessing YouTube using proxy servers. Those who don’t know how have simply moved on with life, using other video-sharing websites as a substitute. In the middle, at some point that nobody cares to remember, the site was …
By: Sana Saleem In Pakistan, where freedom of expression is largely perceived as a Western notion, the Snowden revelations have had a damaging effect. The deeply polarized narrative has become starker as the corridors of power push back on attempts to curb government surveillance. “If the citizens of the United States of America cannot have …
When is YouTube opening? The question has tormented Pakistan’s internet users since the release of the Innocence of Muslims trailer, and the consequent blanket ban in September 2012. The answer was assumedly the responsibility of the then PPP government, which opted instead to let the issue slide and become the incoming PML-N’s headache. To its …
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 the Pakistan government attempts to strike a peace deal with the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i-Taliban, or TTP), significant developments threaten to unravel the social fabric of the state. By adopting a linear approach in pursuing negotiations, the government seems to be ignoring critical shifts, especially within the media, that if left unattended could spiral into …