Pakistan may have taken the first step to lifting its ban on Youtube.
Several connections in the country are allowing access to youtube.com, while many others are still unable to visit the page.
This may be due to a glitch, similar to the one recently experienced in Iran, where for a few hours people were able to access social networking websites such as Facebook which had been banned for four years. However, as soon as the government was informed of this, the websites were blocked once more and the accessibility of the sites was blamed as a technical glitch on the country’s network.
Youtube has been blocked in Pakistan since 2012, when the website refused to take down a 13 minute trailer for the controversial film Innocence of Muslims. The Pakistani government then decided that this film was just the tip of the iceberg, and that there was too much offensive content on Youtube.
It was reported last month that the Pakistan government had acquired URL filters to allow it to selectively block offensive content rather than banning entire services, such as Youtube. The technology was apparently provided by the Pakistan Telecommunication Company and has already been tested, blocking 4,000 URLs.
This is an indication that the website could soon be accessible to everyone in Pakistan, with only a few offensive Youtube videos banned, such as controversial music videos (we’re looking at you Miley Cyrus) and those expressing anti-Islam views or are deemed inappropriate.
ere’s hoping they lift the ban and allow the nation of Pakistan the freedom to watch and listen to whatever they want online, because behind the potentially offensive and controversial Youtube videos on the website that wouldn’t be missed if they were blocked, there’s a lot of wonderful things out there to discover.
