Access to YouTube | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

‘No solution but to persist with YouTube ban’

Pakistan Press Foundation

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 […]


PTA official summoned in Youtube case

Pakistan Press Foundation

LAHORE: A Lahore High Court division bench on Wednesday summoned a “responsible” senior official of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to answer several queries arising during hearing of petitions against ban on Youtube, a popular video sharing website. Bytes for All, a non-government organisation (NGO), and others had filed petitions demanding the court to lift the […]


YouTube ban — a practical way forward

Pakistan Press Foundation

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 […]


Ripples of YouTube ban

Pakistan Press Foundation

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 […]


Two years on, YouTube stays shut

Pakistan Press Foundation

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 […]


YouTube ban

Pakistan Press Foundation

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 […]


SHC seeks PTA comment on YouTube ban

Pakistan Press Foundation

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 […]


Senate body told PTA can’t stop YouTube completely

Pakistan Press Foundation

ISLAMABAD: Technically, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the Ministry of Information and Technology cannot stop YouTube completely but appropriate measures had been taken to implement the directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. People are still using YouTube through different proxy addresses. This was told to a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on […]


YouTube blockade

Pakistan Press Foundation

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, […]


No foolproof way to block banned video, says PTA chief

Pakistan Press Foundation

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 […]


When will YouTube reopen?

Pakistan Press Foundation

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 […]


Ban on YouTube : LHC summons info minister

Pakistan Press Foundation

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday summoned the Federal Minister of Information Technology Anushay Rehman at its next hearing to present the government’s stance on public access to YouTube in the country. The LHC noted that the federal government had not yet presented its stance on the issue, which […]


YouTube blockade

Pakistan Press Foundation

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, […]


On This Day: 2005 YouTube is created

Pakistan Press Foundation

YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, all early employees of PayPal. According to online sources, Hurley and Chen developed the idea for YouTube after they had experienced difficulty sharing videos that had been shot at a dinner party at Chen’s apartment. Karim did not attend the party and denied that […]