The rise and rise of the internet over the last 20 years to the point of its ubiquity today is both boon and bane for governments everywhere. In large part, this is because the internet is the complete antithesis of government. It is in many ways unregulated and extremely difficult to control where it has […]
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 […]
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 […]
Sir: Even those outside of the ‘liberal-fascist’ viewpoint are now beginning to understand that the ban on YouTube is suspect, and few believe this issue is about blasphemous content anymore. The question is: who benefits from the YouTube ban in Pakistan? Actually, there is a long list of those benefiting from the ongoing blockage of […]
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 […]
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, […]
Islamabad: 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 […]
An end to the YouTube ban may be on the horizon. There is no definite date for a lifting, but the government seems prepared to move in that direction. The information minister said on March 16 when speaking to journalists in Lahore that software has been developed that will ‘filter controversial content’. If this is […]
LAHORE: Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said on Sunday that the government would soon lift the ban on popular video-sharing website YouTube as it has developed software to filter controversial content. Addressing senior journalists and intellectuals at the Aiwan-e-Iqbal in Lahore, the minister, however, refused to give a definite date for unblocking YouTube. Turning to the […]
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