20 May 2010 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter

Pakistan blocks Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia

Amidst growing fears of sacrilegious content, Pakistan has restricted access to a number of sites as part of a crackdown on websites viewed as hosting anti-Islamic material.

Social network Facebook was temporarily blocked in the country on Wednesday, in response to a competition held on the site that involved caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Although the BBC reports that the competition sparked numerous protests in Pakistan, Facebook said that the content did not violate its terms, stating:

"While the content does not violate our terms, we do understand it may not be legal in some countries.

"In cases like this, the approach is sometimes to restrict certain content from being shown in specific countries."

Further to the Facebook outrage, Pakistan today blocked video sharing site YouTube, citing its "growing sacrilegious content" as grounds. The site was previously blocked in Pakistan two years ago, after videos it hosted were deemed to be offensive to Muslim viewers. Computerworld reports that Wikipedia has also been restricted.

It is unclear whether Pakistan will seek to block these sites permanently, and whether users will be able to find ways around these restrictions regardless. That certainly seems to be the idea of the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, which has ordered internet service providers in the country to "completely shut down" the offending websites.

According to the PTA's statement, the authority "has thus far blocked more than 450 links on the internet containing derogatory material."

The statement also said the authority had attempted to use the channels available on Facebook and YouTube to lodge their protest before issuing its ban, and that it will continue to block websites deemed offensive to Muslims.

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