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Filtering SMS: PTA may ban over 1,500 English, Urdu words
Over 1,500 English and Urdu words to be filtered in SMSs according to PTA letter floating online.
The list of English words crosses the 1,000 figure, while the Urdu list has over 550 words.
KARACHI: After rumours of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) imposing a ban on porn sites in the country, a new PTA letter floating online orders the imposition of a “system” to ban select words in mobile SMS messages.
A set of two extensive lists in English and Urdu have allegedly been compiled by the PTA. The list of English words crosses the 1,000 figure, while the Urdu list contains over 550 words.
A scan of the letter (dated November 14, 2011) sent from Muhammad Talib Doger, Director General (Services) PTA, states that the filtering of content through SMS must be considered under the scope of “Protection from Spam, Unsolicited, Fraudulent and Obnoxious Communication Regulations, 2009″ and the SOPs laid down to control spamming. The letter is written with reference to a meeting held with mobile phone operators on October 18, 2011 in Islamabad.
PTA has ordered the implementation of the system within seven days of the issuance of the said letter. All operators have been asked to submit a monthly report to PTA regarding the number of blocked text messages.
“Spamming” has been defined as:
The transmission of harmful, fraudulent, misleading, illegal or unsolicited messages in bulk to any person without express permission of the recipient, or causing any electronic system to show any such message or is being involved in falsified online user account registration or falsified domain name registration for commercial purpose.
The letter states that under the “provisions and dictum” by the higher courts, the “fundamental rights of privacy and freedom of speech and expressions guaranteed under the constitution are not unrestricted and are subject to reasonable restrictions imposed by law”.
Clause (d) of sub-section (1) of section 31 of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act, 1996 states that:
Whoever “unauthorisedly transmits through a telecommunication system or telecommunication service any intelligence which he knows or has reason to be false, fabricated, indecent or obscene” is an offence under the Act.
Content filtering may be done through “through automated machine process(s)/function(s)” without reading or disclosing “content of intelligence” by a human being in order to protect consumers under provisions of the Act.
Under license condition No.7.8 of the cellular mobile license:
The Licensee shall take all reasonable steps to track, locate and prevent the source of harassing, unsolicited, offensive, fraudulent or unlawful communication.
Director PR for PTA, Mohammad Younis, while speaking to The Express Tribune, said that he was not aware of any such letter being sent out, adding that many letters are sent out to operators every day, and not all of them go through the PR office.
Speaking on whether the PTA had taken a decision on SMS filtering in the past, Younis said that the authority does not take such decisions and only passes on the instructions to licensees once a decision is taken by a ministerial committee.
While much of the list contains expletives, a number of words to be banned include medical terms, terms used by particular minority groups, common words from the English language and rap group, WuTang Clan.
Medical terms to be banned:
Athletes foot
Breast
Condom
Flatulence
Intercourse
Period
Premature
Tongue
Herpes
Daily usage words to be banned:
Deeper
Fairy
Fingerfood
Hole
Hostage
Harder
Religious terms to be banned:
Devil
Jesus Christ
LGBT terms to be banned:
Gay
Homosexual
Queer
Musicians/artists to be banned:
Wuutang
Reactions online
faizanlakhani even the word “taxi” is on ban list of PTA … #Fail
Amara807 Bewakoof is banned? Random
abbasnasir59 With PTA’s legendary efficiency I am sure Pakistanis won’t be able to access Fcuk e-catalogue.
pateesa So no Pakistani will ever apply to Lund University for his masters, or work at BundesBank. #PTABannedWords
kaalakawaa The banned list includes every conceivable incorrectly spelled version of “masturbation”. “Masturbation”, spelt correctly, is not banned.
ZebAslam And “slave driver” is gone too. Damn. I can imagine a lot of unhappy worker drones. #PTA #bannedlist
abidhussayn Expect Mobile Companies to shut down all their SMS bundle packages in 7 days.
shakirhusain why the hell has #PTA blocked Athlete’s foot???
anthonypermal You know, with the word ‘creamy’ banned, one wonders what cheap-ass erotic novel the compiler was reading. #PTABannedList
Reader Comments (199)
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What about Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is the most SACRED name for Christians….They are trying to ban “JESUS CHRIST” What is wrong with Pakistan? I will leave this country as soon as possible…..its not WORTH living. Pakistan just proved that there is absolutely NO religious freedom here…..I advice all Christians in Pakistan to follow the foot steps of other Christians who left this Country for good. We Christians must leave this Country….First they are banning HOLY BIBLE and now the are banning the name of King of Kings JESUS CHRIST. I urge all Christians to leave Pakistan as soon as possible !!!Recommend
@#$@#%#$%$#
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hahahhahaha my fiance is going to be so unhappy:P but THANKS GOD we are getting married soon :-)
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Is it 2011 or have I accidentally stumbled back into 16th century or Taliban’s Afghanistan? Have we really run out of problems to solve so that now we are creating them to keep ourselves busy? PTA, it seems, is being run by buffoons.
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Why the word “Jesus Christ” is in the Banned List? The management of PTA needs to be dismissed immediately. I heard different terminologies about Anti-Christ and now have seen how they look like and how they work… Name Jesus is mentioned several times in both Holy Books
Holy Bible = 981 times… Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NamesandtitlesofJesusintheNewTestament
Holy Quran = 25 times… Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JesusinIslam
The only place where the word Jesus is not mentioned is the Constitution… And the democratic lovers who are illustrate religiously and ethically don’t care of anything. I don’t think that they are just enemy of Christianity but are the enemy of Islam as well.
THE REASON WHY I HATE DEMOCRACY is, because it is UNHOLY… and they works under the formula of:
COMMUNISM+UNHOLYISM = DEMOCRACY
Democracy never promote RELIGION, but represent HYPOCRISY…Recommend
I would be happy if they spend some energy and money to better educate people for not using anything that is “supposed to be” un-ethical.
Just an example, You “our ruling people”, provides best stage acts with all those “nangi dharangi” juggets and then put a ban on us to use those words …
The only reason is to avoid abuses that we were about share against Mr. Politicians !!!
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I just feel sorry for you folks. wow
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OMG , this sucks , BIG TIME!
like seriously? this is so childish PTA , Losers!
bohot bakwaas hai ye , bohot brri waali! This is of no use! literally , u can’t do anythin by bannin all dis , wots wid our tongues? U gonna BAN them too?
HUH! LAME!
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@faizan:
Its not the telecom companies who took this step, it was PTA. At least read properly before you comment.
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Please give PTA a kick in the butt, so they can be producive!!! Losers
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I hope it will curb textual intercourse :))
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Looks like the “devil” is behind the banning of the One he hates the most…”Jesus Christ.”
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This shows how big an idiot the whole nation is….Recommend
I am sure they will ban all political names including, Imran Khan!
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Assalam-o-Allaikum Warahmatullah.PTA should do one thing,id est,must ban SMS services of all mobile companies because the most important question rises that which 1500 words PTA will ban and how or will replace ** with the derogatory words used in the SMS as usually is done and seen in English movies?
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Is Jesus Christ really a word that needs to be banned OR is someone feeling really really insecure?? I wonder? Strange . . . Recommend
well thanks to this nonsense, we Pakistanis have once again become a joke
http://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-bans-obscene-words-cell-phone-texts-122933488.html
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What a depraved society to live in!!!
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Jesus Christ I was driving my car and farted and I forgot to turn my headlights on and I accidently ran over a tampon.
Man I’m glad I am an American!
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hahahaha if I ever turn into a sociopath I will make sure my shirt says ‘Float like a fairy sting like herpes’. My weapon of choice will be an athletes foot. I will wear a mask that has a tongue sticking out. And I will take the SOB hostage. To tantalize him I will hand him a phone with just a text message package. Lets see how he describes me to the authorities or explains his situation in a text message >D
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LOL i live in a joke of a country. Laughing stock of the world… Can’t even defend my nation anymore because it’s run by imbeciles!Recommend
This is absolutely absurd!! However, some of the comments above are really hilarious. Kept me laughing until I finished the list.Recommend
@Hassan Arif:
Brain is not a muscle. Sorry, couldnt resist :p
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This is good but it wont work 100%, but it will stop spammers and haters
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@Was A Pakistani:
nation is not be blamed for idiosyncratic behavior of some bureaucrats ….its not the nation which is at fault….it is the strange authorities….please criticize the ones who deserve and do not admonish nation…..now take the other side of things…yes obnoxious smses are becoming a problem but rather than issuing lists, why not the athorities use IMEI numbers to check originating mobiles by getting record of IMEI numbers of all mobiles sold in country from manufacturers or even if software smsbots on PC are being used for such things then tools can be used to track down IP of such culprits….Oh God…the PTA needs to be scientific and they are going back in dark ages….if you ban words simple like “hole” , “fairy”, then may be smses will start looking like this….“hello i …… to ……to say …….to my………”
so one hand we need scientific approach as discussed above and on the other hand parents are advised to instill moral values in children..because not only smsbots are culprits …sometimes teens also bombard people with obnoxious smses just for fun…so charity begins at home…stop bashing nation and get things right at home…….
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Look what think is that sooner or later we’ll come up with alternatives and their quest to deprive us of a fertile vocabulary will no make it up to the mark. There are countless ways to devise alternatives.
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Yaar check it. pakistani officials have once again successfully defamed pakistan. look up whats happening out there.
http://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-bans-obscene-words-cell-phone-texts-122933488.html
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@Sajid Hameed:
thats a spirit…..
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Y not Ban these Late night Cheap call packages and SMS Bundle bribes …. instead of beating the bush!
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My god!
What is happening to pakistan?!
This looks so absurd,is pakistan being ran by such juvenile peoples?
It is interfering into someone else life and is a threat to privacy.
This is gonna make lots of laugh over the whole world…..Recommend
Glazed Donut is on the list! HAHAHAHAHA
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@Waqas:
i agree
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really i am american and im so srry pakistans[i spelled that wrong] i am so srry i hope you get a better gov. or pta or watever cuz theese guyz stink im srry -k-
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I’ve just looked at the lists of words compiled by PTA and it seems as though they have bugged the last conference call between Asif Zardari, Nawaz Sharrif and Imran Khan.
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This is a new corruption scam. ::))) PTA wants you to buy IPHONE and use its applications like watsup which allow free texting and can by pass banned words
there you go.
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Don’t worry. SMS addicts are now looking for Thesaurus to find substitute words.
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Kudos to all the PTA and other involved authorities for such an absurd action. We should realize the falling economic condition and other crisis of our country rather than spending time on such useless things. This is really a crazy things. People will learn more about these banned words seriously in coming days. -:pRecommend
Thats Ridiculous.
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hahaha . i can’t stop laughing reading it all. it’s absolutely hilarious. first Rehman Malik wants to ban google etc and now these things. I wonder when they ever do some real work.
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What about gayyyyyyyyyyyyy will this be allowed.?
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No fuss about the “may” word. The letter, the list and the guy who sent it on are for real. The absurd has surely been attempted. Nobody dare challenge Mr Dogar. So go for the geeky things instead. Explicit is no fun anyways.
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Good move by PTA. This will make Pakistan purer and more Islamic. It will force people to turn to piety and religion instead of wasting their time with SMS. In fact, they should ban SMS altogether so people can spend their time in nimaz which is the true purpose of life.
PS. Thank the Gods, I’m an Indian.
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They only got these kind of stupid and nonsense implementations and enforcements…. What the …..
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@Omar:
They are blocking “athletes foot” because they do not want any kind of Foot Jobs in pakistan.
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The best one is Yellow man and i think also the main reason for the ban
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@Arjun:
Mind your language….making fun is one thing but making fun of religion….your comment should have been deleted…..
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How retarded!! Muslims believe in the prophet Jesus Christ (pbuh) and to include the name of prophet Jesus Christ (pbuh) in this list is shocking and a disservice to the people of Pakistan!!
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According to my mind: This decision will take place as soon as possible because to implement rules and regulation rather than deregulate it nice job by this sort of senses based making decisions.
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Hey guys. You do realize that banning porn sites wont help? People can surely Download it.
Secondly,If someone knows about those proxy settings, then banning the porn sites is of no use i my self just checked out the softwares and its true. you can visit those websites again. So As you know Today’s children are very intelligent regarding computers perhaps banning porn sites was of no use.I must say PTA is a fail or IT has reached so far that its not possible to control the Demerits.
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