Pakistan bans Facebook, Youtube,Wikipedia,Flicker over 'Draw Mohammad Day'
Pakistan blocked YouTube, Wikipedia, and other websites Thursday to try to suppress a Facebook page declaring Thursday Everybody Draw Mohammad Day. Many protested the 'blasphemy' of depicting the prophet. It seems Islamic sensitivities have been inflamed.
Pakistan blocked access to YouTube once before for two days in 2008 because of what it said was unIslamic content. Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia and Morocco have all blocked access to YouTube in the past for various reasons.
It remains to be seen how successful the government will be at keeping Pakistan's nearly 20 million Internet users from accessing the blocked sites. Other countries, such as China, permanently ban Facebook and YouTube.
In compliance with the orders of Honourable Lahore High Court, Lahore, on the Writ Petition No.10392/10, dated the 19th May, 2010, the Ministry of Information Technology has issued a directive to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block the Face Book and all other internet links displaying sacrilegious caricatures of the Holy Prophet.
Ministry of IT has also directed the PTA to remain alert and watchful and block all such links displaying the profane caricatures immediately.
Ministry of IT has requested public at large to contact a dedicated Telephone No.0800-5505 and e-mail address:
complaint@pta.gov.pk , to transmit necessary information, should anything to the effect of objectionable caricature get displayed/propagated at any website.