Shortly after the country of Pakistan decided to block Facebook from internet access within the country, they also have added YouTube as another blocked site due to what they deem as "blasphemous" depictions of the prophet Mohammed of islam.
From the report at DAWN:
I wonder, do you suppose that Pakistan's decision had anything to do with the fact that today is "National Draw Mohammed Day"?!!
From the report at DAWN:
Pakistan has blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube in a bid to contain “blasphemous” material, officials said on Thursday.Gee, I wonder if Holger Awakens is blocked in Pakistan today? LOL
The blockade came hours after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed Internet service providers to stop access to social network Facebook indefinitely on Wednesday because of an online competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad.
Wahaj-us-Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, an Internet service provider, said PTA issued an order late on Wednesday seeking an “immediate” blockade of YouTube.
“It was a serious instruction as they wanted us to do it quickly and let them know after that,” he told Reuters.
I wonder, do you suppose that Pakistan's decision had anything to do with the fact that today is "National Draw Mohammed Day"?!!
Pakistan blocks YouTube over “blasphemous” material
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube in a bid to contain “blasphemous” material, officials said on Thursday.
The blockade came hours after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed Internet service providers to stop access to social network Facebook indefinitely on Wednesday because of an online competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad.
Wahaj-us-Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, an Internet service provider, said PTA issued an order late on Wednesday seeking an “immediate” blockade of YouTube.
“It was a serious instruction as they wanted us to do it quickly and let them know after that,” he told Reuters.
YouTube was also blocked in Pakistan in 2007 for about a day for what it called un-Islamic videos.
A PTA official, who declined to be identified, said the action was taken after the authority determined that some caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) were transferred from Facebook to YouTube.
Any representation of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is deemed un-Islamic and blasphemous by Muslims.
Siraj said the blocking of the two websites would cut up to 25 per cent of total Internet traffic in Pakistan.
“It'll have an impact on the overall Internet traffic as they eat up 20 to 25 per cent of the country's total 65 giga-bytes traffic,” he said.
Publications of similar cartoons in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked deadly protests in Muslim countries. Around 50 people were killed during violent protests in Muslim countries in 2006 over the cartoons, five of them in Pakistan.
Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on Denmark's embassy in Islamabad in 2008, killing six people, saying it was in revenge for publication of the caricatures.
No comments:
Post a Comment