Pakistan's Internet censorship

[Hyde]

Why PTA blocked Twitter ?

ab nai baat naa suna chacha

i am already shocked to hear they blocked google

may be we will have another Islamic version of Google calling it Googlistan.

 

[xenia]

ab nai baat naa suna chacha

i am already shocked to hear they blocked google

may be we will have another Islamic version of Google calling it Googlistan.

google isnt blocked..m using it right now!no problem here
let me check twitter!

 

[sparklingway]

Google is back from the stone age on most ISPs. The bans start and end first with PTCL.

Twitter is approaching a complete ban.

Countdown 5 ... 4 .... 3 .... 2 .... PTA cut off SEAMWE-3 and SEAMWE-4 because Maulvi brigade can't be rational and cannot stop flaming stupid drawing competitions.

 

[xenia]

twitter also working...y r u guyz creating hype bilawaja??

 

[Huda]

google isnt blocked..m using it right now!no problem here
let me check twitter!

yes ur right google isnt blocked

 

[Hyde]

Google is back from the stone age on most ISPs. The bans start and end first with PTCL.

Twitter is approaching a complete ban.

Countdown 5 ... 4 .... 3 .... 2 .... PTA cut off SEAMWE-3 and SEAMWE-4 because Maulvi brigade can't be rational and cannot stop flaming stupid drawing competitions.

bhai agar Maulvi hazrat gharon main baith jayen ge to woh karain ge kya

yehi to unka business hai - Hartalain karna - protest karna aur shaam ko loot maar yah jalsay jaloos nikal ke safely ghar pohanch jaana

 

[shravan]

twitter also working...y r u guyz creating hype bilawaja??

I have many Pakistani Friends on Twitter...They told it has been blocked. They get the message "This site is Restricted".

They are able to access twitter through applications & mobile but not via web.

 

[Hyde]

google isnt blocked..m using it right now!no problem here
let me check twitter!

thanks - some users were having problems using google yesterday and like i said it must be having technical faults

i just woke up now and didn't know if its still active or not

thanks for the confirmation

 

[sparklingway]

twitter also working...y r u guyz creating hype bilawaja??

Have you ever, ever tried checking beyond your own PC?

Nobody said its a blanket ban yet, ISPs will stamp the ban over a time.

Breaking: Twitter banned in Pakistan [Update#1]

 

[xenia]

I have many Pakistani Friends on Twitter...They told it has been blocked. They get the message "This site is Restricted".

They are able to access twitter through applications & mobile but not via web.

i am in lahore.. only you tube n facebook are banned!i can access everything else.

 

[shravan]

i am in lahore.. only you tube n facebook are banned!i can access everything else.

Twitter blocked in parts of Pakistan – The Express Tribune

 

[sparklingway]

Prophets, protests and holocaust​

Posted by Fatima Ajmal
May 21, 2010

Anyone who’s been on Youtube or Facebook or Blogs in general knows that no intelligent conversation can take place between two Internet-commenters. It’s like the paralympics being hosted on the Interwebs. Even if you win, you’re still retarded. During the last fortnight, ever since this unfortunate drawing contest issue caught fire.

I’ve been reading countless accounts of Pakistani Internet users in a variety of rhetoric styles which all sum up to this one thing: ‘they’ are out to get ‘us’ and they have COOKIES! Ok, I’m just joking about the cookies but I can practically hear Mr. Zaid Hamid saying in the most Dumbledore-esque voice: ‘I will only truly have left the Pakistani minds when none here are loyal to me’. Most of the Pakistanis today are channeling the same spirit which can only be likened to a mental patient caught between acute psychosis, paranoia and schizophrenia. The bottomline is, had we paid any attention to the course ‘Introduction to Logic-374′ in college, we would perhaps be aware of how absurd all our comments and arguments are. I will try to counter some in this post:

1. Blasphemy is a BIG deal:
Yes it is a big deal but so is tolerance. You are claiming to be the followers of a Prophet who preached that conquering wrath and anger is perhaps the bravest thing a man could do. I’m not a religious scholar but I’m quite sure that the Prophet who himself went to visit an old woman who used to throw garbage at him, the Prophet who only had well wishes for a city which reduced him to blood and tears when Angel Gabrielle stood at his command to just say the word and Taif would be history -that Prophet would not condone such inflammatory reactions in his name.

2. Facebook is a two-faced Jew! :
Many have commented that Facebook deleted a group created to make fun of the Jewish Holocaust. They accuse Facebook of having double standards. They ask that why an Arab cartoonist who drew cartoons of holocaust had to attend several hearings while those who drew caricatures of the Prophet went scot-free? My answer to them would be that probably ’cause a cartoon of the holocaust mocks ‘a people’ -specifically Jews. It sends a message that Jews should be persecuted for being Jew. It says that violence/genocide inflicted on Jews is humorous in some way. It cannot be equated with caricatures which target just one personality. Why do you expect them to get why we Muslims are so emotional about any depictions of our Prophet when they make fun of their own prophet i.e. Jesus -who by the way, is God for them? There are numerous groups and pages on Facebook that make fun of Jesus/God -Facebook doesn’t delete them either. I’m not saying that making/posting caricatures is OK, obviously as a Muslim I detest it, but I do get how Facebook won’t delete the said pages. Get over it and stop accusing everything that moves as a ‘JEW’!

3. Cause and Effect:
Let’s do a timeline of what happened, I’ll skip the exact details and will stick to the standard terms ‘they’ and ‘us’:

1. It all started with an attempt to depict the Prophet in a TV show
2. They were censored, they reacted by starting a whole drawing contest
3. They wondered if someone would even join their group/page, which was obviously full of hateful content
4. Then we reacted by avalanching Facebook with groups and pages demanding its boycott
5. We made noise, forwarded the said pages/groups to every-one-we-knew, hence spreading the caricatures in the process
6. They were happy for finally getting some attention and the reaction they expected from us
7. We commented, updated our statuses, sent text messages etc. with more demands to boycott the pages
8. They didn’t even dignify our demands with a response
9. We still insisted that Facebook should delete the said pages
10. They went fishing and got some good catch for the barbecue. They didn’t really care about us.
11. We came out on the streets with banners and play-cards to protest
12. They danced into the night, partying hard and drinking some fine fine wine.
13. We reported the controversial pages again and again and again.
14. They slept off the enormous hangover from the previous night.
15. We decided we could no longer take it, so we banned Facebook, Youtube, parts of Wikipedia, flickr, Google.com.pk on and off
16. They woke up to find that they were able to get a reaction out of the Pakistani Authorities at a National Level. SCORE!
17. They high-fived and decided to throw another party. Thanks to us now everyone in the world knows about the stupid caricature contest.

Just wake up and stop being so reactive! Maybe tomorrow they’ll have some t-shirts in the name of ‘Freedom of Speech’ bearing the same caricatures and we would all be to blame for it because we are the ones who became the wind to their wings. We turned what was just a silly unreasonable contest into a world-wide phenomenon.

4. Good Decision, LHC :
It’s not about ‘Freedom of Speech’: Well, actually it is! I have the right to browse the Internet uninhibited and the LHC or PTA has no right to take it away from me. I say everyone who supports this ban, should have their 1-year log of Internet usage made public -then they’ll cry about ‘Privacy’ and ‘Universal rights of freedom to information’

5. We win, Facebook is banned:
Ummm… not really -they’ve won. They elicited the exact reaction they wanted from us. They got publicity through us and they even got rid of us. Now we can’t even go and make our presence felt on Facebook that we detest these caricatures. We can’t flood the whole Facebook with Hadiths and Duroods and campaigns to honor the Prophet have been silenced. Like every time in history, we have chosen to mute ourselves when it was time to make our voices heard.

Oh and by the way, they still don’t care.

 

[Comet]

i am in lahore.. only you tube n facebook are banned!i can access everything else.

Same here.

 

[Durran3]

Prophets, protests and holocaust​

Posted by Fatima Ajmal
May 21, 2010

Anyone who’s been on Youtube or Facebook or Blogs in general knows that no intelligent conversation can take place between two Internet-commenters. It’s like the paralympics being hosted on the Interwebs. Even if you win, you’re still retarded. During the last fortnight, ever since this unfortunate drawing contest issue caught fire.

I’ve been reading countless accounts of Pakistani Internet users in a variety of rhetoric styles which all sum up to this one thing: ‘they’ are out to get ‘us’ and they have COOKIES! Ok, I’m just joking about the cookies but I can practically hear Mr. Zaid Hamid saying in the most Dumbledore-esque voice: ‘I will only truly have left the Pakistani minds when none here are loyal to me’. Most of the Pakistanis today are channeling the same spirit which can only be likened to a mental patient caught between acute psychosis, paranoia and schizophrenia. The bottomline is, had we paid any attention to the course ‘Introduction to Logic-374′ in college, we would perhaps be aware of how absurd all our comments and arguments are. I will try to counter some in this post:

1. Blasphemy is a BIG deal:
Yes it is a big deal but so is tolerance. You are claiming to be the followers of a Prophet who preached that conquering wrath and anger is perhaps the bravest thing a man could do. I’m not a religious scholar but I’m quite sure that the Prophet who himself went to visit an old woman who used to throw garbage at him, the Prophet who only had well wishes for a city which reduced him to blood and tears when Angel Gabrielle stood at his command to just say the word and Taif would be history -that Prophet would not condone such inflammatory reactions in his name.

2. Facebook is a two-faced Jew! :
Many have commented that Facebook deleted a group created to make fun of the Jewish Holocaust. They accuse Facebook of having double standards. They ask that why an Arab cartoonist who drew cartoons of holocaust had to attend several hearings while those who drew caricatures of the Prophet went scot-free? My answer to them would be that probably ’cause a cartoon of the holocaust mocks ‘a people’ -specifically Jews. It sends a message that Jews should be persecuted for being Jew. It says that violence/genocide inflicted on Jews is humorous in some way. It cannot be equated with caricatures which target just one personality. Why do you expect them to get why we Muslims are so emotional about any depictions of our Prophet when they make fun of their own prophet i.e. Jesus -who by the way, is God for them? There are numerous groups and pages on Facebook that make fun of Jesus/God -Facebook doesn’t delete them either. I’m not saying that making/posting caricatures is OK, obviously as a Muslim I detest it, but I do get how Facebook won’t delete the said pages. Get over it and stop accusing everything that moves as a ‘JEW’!

3. Cause and Effect:
Let’s do a timeline of what happened, I’ll skip the exact details and will stick to the standard terms ‘they’ and ‘us’:

1. It all started with an attempt to depict the Prophet in a TV show
2. They were censored, they reacted by starting a whole drawing contest
3. They wondered if someone would even join their group/page, which was obviously full of hateful content
4. Then we reacted by avalanching Facebook with groups and pages demanding its boycott
5. We made noise, forwarded the said pages/groups to every-one-we-knew, hence spreading the caricatures in the process
6. They were happy for finally getting some attention and the reaction they expected from us
7. We commented, updated our statuses, sent text messages etc. with more demands to boycott the pages
8. They didn’t even dignify our demands with a response
9. We still insisted that Facebook should delete the said pages
10. They went fishing and got some good catch for the barbecue. They didn’t really care about us.
11. We came out on the streets with banners and play-cards to protest
12. They danced into the night, partying hard and drinking some fine fine wine.
13. We reported the controversial pages again and again and again.
14. They slept off the enormous hangover from the previous night.
15. We decided we could no longer take it, so we banned Facebook, Youtube, parts of Wikipedia, flickr, Google.com.pk on and off
16. They woke up to find that they were able to get a reaction out of the Pakistani Authorities at a National Level. SCORE!
17. They high-fived and decided to throw another party. Thanks to us now everyone in the world knows about the stupid caricature contest.

Just wake up and stop being so reactive! Maybe tomorrow they’ll have some t-shirts in the name of ‘Freedom of Speech’ bearing the same caricatures and we would all be to blame for it because we are the ones who became the wind to their wings. We turned what was just a silly unreasonable contest into a world-wide phenomenon.

4. Good Decision, LHC :
It’s not about ‘Freedom of Speech’: Well, actually it is! I have the right to browse the Internet uninhibited and the LHC or PTA has no right to take it away from me. I say everyone who supports this ban, should have their 1-year log of Internet usage made public -then they’ll cry about ‘Privacy’ and ‘Universal rights of freedom to information’

5. We win, Facebook is banned:
Ummm… not really -they’ve won. They elicited the exact reaction they wanted from us. They got publicity through us and they even got rid of us. Now we can’t even go and make our presence felt on Facebook that we detest these caricatures. We can’t flood the whole Facebook with Hadiths and Duroods and campaigns to honor the Prophet have been silenced. Like every time in history, we have chosen to mute ourselves when it was time to make our voices heard.

Oh and by the way, they still don’t care.

This was awesome indeed.. btw the people who were out on the streets with mma flags.. just how many of them ACTUALLY have a facebook account?

 

[DaRk WaVe]

Side-effect:Ban or confront?

Friday, May 21, 2010
Harris Khalique

When we get angry, we start digging hard into the earth on which we stand until the time our toenails start bleeding profusely. When we are scared of thunder or lightning or a storm or a beast that scares us with his power to make us extinct, we hide our heads in the sand on which we stand. Neither would we prepare to fight to defend ourselves nor move away to avoid the imminent danger. We have become ostriches. We yell a lot but look away from the real challenges that face us. Small brains and large bodies.

Some of us ostriches have learnt to prevaricate by way of becoming suicidal instead of taking on the questions we are confronted with. Many of our youths are goaded to blow themselves up and kill scores of innocent people around them by self-conceited clerics and vested interest. No one who matters in the Muslim world belonging to the religious, political, cultural or academic elite has demonstrated a will or a drive to take the masses out of the abyss of darkness, ignorance and narrow-mindedness.

Rather, they whip up their emotions and use them to negotiate with global powers that be, dominated by the west of course, for further increase in their selfish gains and petty privileges for their persons, families and the coterie of associates. None of the rulers and those belonging to the affluent classes in Muslim states (most of them are run by unrepresentative governments anyway) has the strength to look into the eyes of their western counterparts and ask them to pay heed to this rising hate and intolerance against Muslims in their countries. People are castigated in western societies for even questioning the version of the Holocaust as narrated officially by the international leadership of the Jews and the state of Israel. But the prophet of Islam can be blasphemed openly in the name of freedom of expression and Muslims are singled out by some, including influential people, as the only terrorist community on this planet.

However, what Muslims continually fail to understand, particularly in Pakistan, is that the evil-minded, bigoted and racist Islamophobes derive enormous pleasure from our reaction to their mischief by pelting stones at public property in our own country, setting private cars ablaze, going on strikes from work, closing down schools and colleges and finally, hitting at innocent non-Muslims among us and their places of worships.

Muslims are going through a dark period for which their leadership is primarily responsible. However, the western leadership has to understand that if they are sincere in bringing peace to this world, they need serious thought for mending their ways and dispel the justified impression that Muslims are a beleaguered community.

But banning websites in Pakistan is the act of an ostrich. Facebook is a voluntary social networking website. It is not the moderator of the site which created this objectionable page where a competition for drawings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is announced. Those who dislike Facebook for not removing the page can deactivate their accounts. Those who wish to confront the mischief that ridicules Muslims and blasphemes the last of the great prophets must use the same technology.

Besides, banning YouTube, another website rich with useful content, and Wikepedia, the free web-based encyclopaedia of great worth, is another strange decision. The rest of the world would continue to use these sites. We must react in a rational way and fight it out on the same wicket.