Pakistan blocks YouTube website

Pakistan blocks YouTube website

news.bbc.co.uk

Pakistan has blocked access to the popular YouTube website because of content deemed offensive to Islam.

Its telecommunications authority ordered internet service providers to block the site until further notice.

Reports said the content included Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that have outraged many.

But one report said a trailer for a forthcoming film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, which portrays Islam in a negative light, was behind the ban.

(visit the link for the full news article)

So is this the new Pakistan?

I'm not sure if the reasons are the real ones. What next?

Live Leak, Disclosure TV, all of them?

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Not just that, but forced the site down on the internet for about 1 hour.
www.news.com...
blogs.zdnet.com...

[edit on 24-2-2008 by Xabora]

Wow...they have a huge job ahead of them if they want to start blocking sites that are offensive to them. I'm sure there must be thousands of personal sites out there that promote ideals/religious values that don't jibe with their own.

They'd better start googling!!

Michelle

Youtube was blocked from all Victorian schools (a state in Australia) for 1 year after a certain incident was posted there. I guess this echos the pointlessness of that act. There is always another way to access information. And if an Islamic person comes across an offensive video, all they have to do is turn it off. Why cut off a site to an entire country?

I never understood why most Muslim run nations are so afraid of content about Islam and why they are so thin skinned.

Of course if they are the ones spouting offensive material then its ok. Worse then little kids.

Hi There,

I am sick to the teeth with authoritarian/totalitarian censorship, especially that coming from religious idiocy. Nobody, and I do mean NOBODY tells me what I can or cannot view, listen to, or read. Freedom of expression, and the freedom to live one's life to one's own historical and cultural values, philosophies and traditions is the primary foundation for political stability. Today, however, we are seeing this fundamental creed being attacked from all quarters around the globe.

This successful attempt to censor content on a website caused a global barrier and provides future 'excuses' and 'tactics' for any other tin-pot tyrannical government to attempt the same. "Oh! I'm sorry! Did I bring the internet down by cutting cables on the sea bed?" "Oh! You can't access a free and global website because I am offended by content displayed on it? I do apologise, but it gives governments food for thought." "How dare you people be free of my authority. I will tell you when to #, eat and sleep; and when I say jump, you will ask 'how high sir'!"

If Islam (or any other religion) is offended by content appearing on websites around the world. it needs to understand that such content is a direct reponse to the offences caused by Islam. The same can be said for other type of content, especially political. People around the world should realise that governments do not 'give' freedom to people, for it is not their's to give; but, they are charged to protect it (by the people), and certainly not by lessening it.