• April 14, 2013
• Social Media

ISLAMABAD: Despite the caretaker administration’s willingness to allow YouTube access back in Pakistan, the government was firm in its stance on keeping the ban until the video-sharing website removed the controversial blasphemous video that provoked countrywide violent protests in September last year. “Google Inc, the owner of YouTube, has been engaged in progressive talks recently […]

• April 5, 2013
• Media and Governance, Social Media

MULTAN – Although electioneering is yet to gain momentum for the upcoming general elections on ground level, social media is abuzz with election hustle and bustle more vigorously as compared to the previous elections. Social media, which provides a true platform to general public to convey their feelings, sentiments and aspirations to others, has become […]

• April 4, 2013
• Social Media

ANWAR KHAN Social media has emerged as a smart tool in Pakistan’s electoral history, which parties are phenomenally using for electioneering but with a limited reach to the countrywide electorates. Analysts believe the social media is growing as an attractive tool for political parties’ daily activities and a cheap medium of communication to propagate against […]

• March 28, 2013
• Broadcasting, Social Media

Maleeha Hamid Siddiqui KARACHI: What does Twitter mean to tweeters and tweetaholics? Is it a medium that can be trusted? Or is it to be kept at an arm’s length? These and other interrelated questions were raised by writer and film-maker Tan Siok Siok in the aptly titled Twittermentary, which was screened at T2F on […]

• March 22, 2013
• Freedom of Expression, Social Media

Sir: Lest we forget, we have not had access to YouTube for many, many months. The popular video sharing site was made a scapegoat sometime back and was shut down to the public, denying them access. We have no access to entertainment videos, educational videos and informative documentaries. I really hope the new government does […]

• March 19, 2013
• Social Media

THIS is apropos of Hajra Mumtaz’s ‘Social media pitfalls’ (March 11). The writer has only brought to light the shortcomings of the social media and has overlooked its achievements. This gives an uneven image of the case. We all have recently witnessed how the social media could be proved useful for accelerating a cause. In […]

• March 11, 2013
• Social Media

By: Hajrah Mumtaz TO every action there is an opposite and equal reaction; these days, a caveat is being added: except in the media, where you’ll find overreaction. This the country’s electronic media has gone on to prove. The smallest cause for worry — and Pakistan has no shortage of these — and the media […]

• March 2, 2013
• Social Media

Sir: YouTube has been banned in Pakistan for nearly 163 days now. However, the ban has brought little good. The anti-Islam video, which was the root cause of the ban, is still viewable to the entire world on YouTube. Moreover, more than 1 million links on the internet lead to the video as copies of […]

• February 27, 2013
• Freedom of Expression, Social Media

THE PTA and the Supreme Court have banned YouTube in Pakistan. This ban is serving no purpose. As a student, we are also facing some odds. There is a big contradiction in what the SC ordered and what is actually happening in the cyber world. There are a number of Internet proxy servers through which […]

• February 27, 2013
• Freedom of Expression, Front Page, Social Media

ISLAMABAD: Standing Committee on Information Technology on Tuesday decided to form a three member committee to negotiate with the management of YouTube, in order to restore the website, after addressing the concerns of the nation. Senator Mohammad Idrees Khan Safi chaired the meeting of the committee, which was held at the Parliament Lodges. Director-General (DG) […]

• February 14, 2013
• Freedom of Expression, New Media, Social Media

In a bid to eradicate grey trafficking, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology on Wednesday approved ‘The Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organisation) Bill of 2012’, which would be presented before the lower house of parliament in the next session. The committee, which met under Chaudhry Barjees Tahir, expressed irritation over the alleged silence by officials […]

• February 8, 2013
• New Media, Social Media

KARACHI: Hacked twice in the last three months, PKNIC – a shared registry system that manages the .pk domain name space (DNS) for Pakistani websites – remains vulnerable to basic-level cyber attacks. Though the company has thwarted the recent attack, it is still investigating the security breach. PKNIC, which hosts 23,000 users of the .pk […]

• February 7, 2013
• Freedom of Expression, Front Page, Social Media

By: Rafay Mahmood KARACHI: The government’s ban on video-sharing website YouTube has been protested on Twitter and Facebook time and again by everyone from ordinary citizens to journalists and musicians in the past four months. While most have tried to live a life without YouTube — either by using Vimeo and Dailymotion — or around […]

• February 7, 2013
• Social Media

Standard Chartered Bank launched a regional social media competition where fans stand a chance to win a limited edition signed Liverpool Football Club (LFC) shirt. The LFC shirt will have the ‘Seeing is believing’ logo instead of the Standard Chartered logo to raise awareness about the Bank’s global initiative to raise US $100 million by […]