ISLAMABAD: A new arrangement with the management of Google/YouTube has brightened the chance of YouTube being unblocked in Pakistan. If certain conditions of the Google management are met, YouTube will be accessible as YouTube.com.pk, a local search engine. This was stated by Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunications Anusha Rehman at Senate Standing […]
LAHORE: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid on Saturday said the government was not interested in prolonging the ban on Youtube. Pakistanis will soon hear good news in this regard after the government established mandatory filters which is a time-consuming and painstaking exercise, he said. Speaking at a certificate-awarding ceremony to students […]
ISLAMABAD: With reference to a story titled “YouTube not to be opened any time soon” published in daily The News on October 25, 2013, the official spokesman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has clarified that PTA blocks objectionable link/URL or websites on directions of the Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC). As for opening of video sharing […]
ISLAMABAD: In a bid to reopen social media website YouTube soon in Pakistan, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has dispatched a summary to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, seeking necessary approval prior to his departure to United States, The Nation learnt on Saturday. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to visit New York on […]
It is ironic that the most transparent thing about the government’s efforts to censor the internet was the tender process it used to award the contract for censoring software to Canadian technology company Netsweeper. Transparency, after all, is a democratic virtue not too far removed from freedom of speech. That Islamabad abided by one while […]
ISLAMABAD: In a nondescript, creeper-draped building in the capital of Islamabad, a small team of men is purging Pakistan’s Internet. Shadowy government officials are blocking thousands of pages deemed undesirable. But they are not fast enough. So the government is now testing Canadian software that can block millions of sites a second. The censorship helps […]
ISLAMABAD: While experts are unable to find any way to block unwanted material on social networking website, YouTube, the Ministry of Information and Technology is working on ‘Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill’ which it considers can pave the way for a localised version of youtube. The bill might take one or two more months to […]
ISLAMABAD: The ministry of information technology was upbeat about lifting the ban on video sharing website YouTube after having finally acquired the ‘missing’ filters to block blasphemous content within days but it seems that the matter will consume more time. On August 22, State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman revealed during a briefing that […]
Social media website You Tube was banned in Pakistan in September 2012 after a blasphemous video titled “Innocence of Muslims” was uploaded on it which caused mass scale protests/riots leading to loss of life/property across the Muslim world and the operator of the popular webpage Google, refused to remove it. This was not the first […]
ISLAMABAD: The government has put the ball into the court of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for re-opening YouTube, as the regulator has been given a three-day deadline to put a mechanism in place to stop the uploading of blasphemous content. “We have developed IT solutions to block around 4,000 URLs having blasphemous content with […]
I had been considering writing on this topic for a while, but I foolishly believed it to be ‘trivial’ or ‘unimportant’, or even ‘so incredibly stupid that my brain hurt to dwell on it for more than a moment’. But our elected leadership and our guardians of justice have managed to open my stubborn eyes. […]
LAHORE: The minister for information technology and her secretary again did not appear before the Lahore High Court and the judge again issued notices to them on a petition challenging the ban imposed by the former government last year on the Youtube for exhibiting blasphemous material on it. On Tuesday, the court was informed that […]
By: Usman Cheema ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom is facing the situation of ‘who will bell the cat,’ as the government wants to reopen YouTube but is unable to find a shoulder to share load if something wrong happens. The Nation through reliable sources has learnt that the previous and incumbent governments are […]
Bangladesh recently lifted the ban on YouTube citing reasons of youth losing out on valuable information regarding research and study materials. It is worth mentioning here that apart from entertainment and research, YouTube is the benchmark medium with regards to product advertisement since the Pakistani industry is losing billions owing to the mindless ban by […]
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