YouTube blocked in Pakistan over purportedly "anti-Islam" video

Reports are circulating today that Pakistan's central telecommunications authority (PTA) ordered ISPs to block access to Youtube on Friday.

According to an official notification sent out by the PTA to major ISPs, the ban was supposed to be imposed on a specific URL, featuring a 04:58-minute-long trailer from Dutch politician Geert Wilders’ controversial anti-Islam movie. The video had been uploaded to the website on January 28, 2008, and had remained largely unnoticed by the internet-savvy community in Pakistan.

Link to a regional news report, Reporters Without Borders has more.

• [danish3210]

  Hello, My name is danish and I am from pakistan, Karachi.

  I see the Ban of youtube.com link with something different then you guys.

  Hated for muslims, Islam, Quran,Mohammad, muslim world and muslim countries is a new thing on the internet, we should find such things not only on youtube.com but everywhere on the internet, like videos of hatred and text and so on everywhere on internet so Why only youtube.com.

  The reason youtube has been blocked by pakistani authorities i.e On youtube.com there is a large collection of videos related to the Corrupt politicians of pakistan and after the election they came in power and now they are trying to hide their real faces from the local public of pakistan.

  You guys should search ( BALAWAL BHUTTO ZARDARI ) on the youtube.com. there are some other videos on youtube which are exposing the real face of our polititians.

  Anyways….I wish we will have a free media like western world somedays ;)…CHEERS…bah bye

• [danish3210]

  Hello, My name is danish and I am from pakistan, Karachi.

  I see the Ban of youtube.com link with something different then you guys.

  Hated for muslims, Islam, Quran,Mohammad, muslim world and muslim countries is a new thing on the internet, we should find such things not only on youtube.com but everywhere on the internet, like videos of hatred and text and so on everywhere on internet so Why only youtube.com.

  The reason youtube has been blocked by pakistani authorities i.e On youtube.com there is a large collection of videos related to the Corrupt politicians of pakistan and after the election they came in power and now they are trying to hide their real faces from the local public of pakistan.

  You guys should search ( BALAWAL BHUTTO ZARDARI ) on the youtube.com. there are some other videos on youtube which are exposing the real face of our polititians.

  Anyways….I wish we will have a free media like western world somedays ;)…CHEERS…bah bye

• [Antinous]

  Probably a really good point. Block the media for blasphemy as a diversion from blocking it from exposing corruption.

• [danish3210]

  Hello, My name is danish and I am from pakistan, Karachi.

  I see the Ban of youtube.com link with something different then you guys.

  Hated for muslims, Islam, Quran,Mohammad, muslim world and muslim countries is a new thing on the internet, we should find such things not only on youtube.com but everywhere on the internet, like videos of hatred and text and so on everywhere on internet so Why only youtube.com.

  The reason youtube has been blocked by pakistani authorities i.e On youtube.com there is a large collection of videos related to the Corrupt politicians of pakistan and after the election they came in power and now they are trying to hide their real faces from the local public of pakistan.

  You guys should search ( BALAWAL BHUTTO ZARDARI ) on the youtube.com. there are some other videos on youtube which are exposing the real face of our polititians.

  Anyways….I wish we will have a free media like western world somedays ;)…CHEERS…bah bye

• [Takuan]

  But the hardliners have been routed in the election, guess they still aren’t ready for Youtube. Or BoingBoing.

• [Takuan]

  HA!

  February 24th, 2008
  Pakistan removed from the Internet
  Posted by Richard Stiennon @ 1:40 pm

• [Antinous]

  Oh, the PPP will be happy to allow BoingBoing. For a modest emolument.

• [Takuan]

  this just too delicious; YouTube vanishing for several hours is now laid at Musharrafs door – just because he was embarrassed by some newscasts. So now Pakistan is off line altogether.

• [DAVE ID]

  And none of them noticed the Pat Condell videos? :D

• [Takuan]

  that and some cash too

• [jasonltn]

  I use the website of ViewYouTube (http://www.viewyoutube.cn)
  It’s specially designed to watch YouTube video’s online without hours of seaching/installing/configuring software. I can only recommend this.
  The website is English but from China because it’s used alot there.

• [spazzm]

  Geert Wilders is an ass, but banning an entire site on the basis of that serves only to fuel his fire.

• [Antinous]

  All things considered, where do they find the time to even bother? I mean, they do have a thing or two going on over there.

• [Takuan]

  it’s to show the people they are “doing something”

• [Antinous]

  Oh, yeah, the same reason that we’re in Iraq.

• [Philbert]

  Let me, as a Dutch person, give some background.
  Geert Wilders is a Dutch politician who rose after the turmoil of the killing of Pim Fortuyn.

  He is successful in attracting large numbers of voters because of his tendency to use strong language, a negative attitude and above all blaming the Islam for everything. This includes pleas to completely ban the Qu’ran from the Netherlands. The fact that this is completely unfeasible in a modern country as the Netherlands doesn’t concern him, because to him it is not about actually banning the muslim’s holy book, but it is about the headlines he gets from it in the newspapers.

  The last half year he has been bragging about this film he is supposedly producing, as a follow up to the film of the late Theo van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Submission.

  Nobody has seen any footage yet but this mysterious (and probably non existent) film is keeping Dutch media, and Islamic governments abroad busy for a while now.