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
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 these rights, how can you?
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 credit, the PML-N brought in
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,
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 a crisis too deep to
By: Syed Mohammad Ali Given the exponential relevance of the internet in the dissemination of information over the past two decades, the need for internet freedom is justifiably being described as a right of freedom to information. Low literacy rates, economic disparities and poor infrastructure are commonly blamed for expansion of the internet in developing countries like Pakistan. However, there
Pakistan to continue Youtube blockage for an indefinite period as currently no technical solution is at hand, which can erase 100 per cent of the objectionable contents from the social website, it is learnt. Officials’ sources revealed to Business Recorder that currently, there is no technical solution which could block 100 per cent objectionable contents on Youtube, since new links
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