Twitter has been temporarily banned across Pakistan by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Sunday, after the micro-blogging website refused a request by the local government to stop a discussion on Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), which was considered derogatory.
Ironically, #TwitterBan started trending across Pakistan soon after the ban was exposed.
Top tweets
Taha Siddiqui @TahaSSiddiqui
#TwitterBan by Info Ministry. We can't even blame the judiciary or the intelligence/military for this - This is our DEMOCRATIC PARLIAMENT!
madeeha syed @madeehasyed
We accessed blogs during blogger ban, Facbeook during Facebook ban, YouTube during YouTube ban... what makes this #TwitterBan so special?
Shoaib Taimur @shobz
I think that the guy behind Millat Facebook will come up with millat twitter: a place for sweet Muslims. #TwitterBan
We live in a nation of hypocrites. acid crime, violence against women, minorities, corruption and yet we only tackle blasphemy. #twitterban
Farieha Aziz @FariehaAziz
Same arguments being rehashed by government officials as at the time of the Facebook ban in 2010 #TwitterBan
Hina @hinstance
Tweets from a country where the government bans Twitter are engrossing. I find the defiance absolutely delightful! #Pakistan #TwitterBan
Kashif Aziz @kashaziz
Dear PTA, please ban Facebook too or we will accuse you of taking bribes from Mr. Zuckerberg. #Twitterban #Pakistan
Mirza Waheed @MirzaWaheed
In other news, Pakistan authorities have so far ruled out banning fax machines. #TwitterBan
Azeem Dada @azeemdada
#twitterban okay these guys need to go. How i dont know and dont care but enough and enough
sid @sidrah_a
Well done Pakistan, continue to piss off the awaam. #twitterban
Rai M. Azlan Shahid @Rai_Azlan
What will I tell to the people at work the reason of #TwitterBan when many of them unable to understand. Thank you PTA!
S® @Sab33na
RT @FaisalRahat: The irony of twitter being banned in Pakistan and Pak's number 1 trend is #TwitterBan. Thumbs up to the Paki twitterati! :)
Ali Shah @duplexraid
The revolution will not be Tweeted!! TweetShedding is here boys!!#TwitterBan #Pakistan
COMMENTS (23)
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Will tribune publish this, the other side of the coin?
I think the sad thing is slowly so-called muslim liberal elite is not only getting used to idea of blasphemy but working hard to make the rest of us accept it too. Even if you are not to standup for your identity and religion what about making multinationals respect the law of the land?
I have a lot of respect for those people who fight such sadistic mindset like the guys who made Millatfacebook It's now 2 years and they have several lacs of users too. but this is not even the point the point is to stand for your identity laws and what is right.
Well, its quite a nepotism. ET always publish their friends tweets :( Me sad
^^ @shobz: Saudi aint authority on Islam. though this is not related but to verify my statement, you can easily find fotos and videos of hard drinks being served to G.W Bush when he visited Saudia Arabia, so much for the beacon of todays Islam.
besides this whole ban thing is just a shameful attempt to avoid the criticism tht PPP govt is exposed to from Pakistani twitterati, using the Blasphemy charge for cover.
Pakistan is just falling into the trend in most Islamic Countries where Freedom of Expression is non-existent. Why should be surprising? Its not the first time Pakistan has followed the Islamic path, is it?
ummm. does anyone here realize that a Saudi prince has a stake in Twitter? he ain't Jewish. He is a Muslim.
@Raheel Arif: you wrote "and beleive me Jews(twitter owners) have some intelligence they know that if they will not remove that content they are in loss due to the stand taken by Pakistan and they will remove that content due to this big step of Pak government and ban will be lifted
Do you know who owns how much of Twitter? Can you name the Jews, and their percentage of Twitter's ownership? No -- but by stating what you did, you show that you're not motivated by facts.
Secondly, Twitter loses next to no users if Pakistan blocks them. India, which has a much larger population online, accounts for barely 2% of Twitter's userbase, and is the 20th in the top 20 list of Twitter users.
"So whats the big deal if you can live without twitter for few days for love of your religion"
It has nothing to do with my religion. Like I pointed out with the Facebook case, blocking the site or coming to an "agreement" with them to hide some content from Pakistani users doesn't do a thing to stop blasphemy. It has more to do with pacifying people like you.
@great there is difference b/w criticism and mocking......
@Faried Nawaz I will search about this, according to my info facebook was going to remove completely those pages And only this thing make sense, if PTA want to hide content in Pakistan they can do it by themselves as the did for websites having adult content and they don't need to contact facebook for this
@Faried Nawaz The tweets shown in this articles show how much people want to praise Prophet SAW in response of blasphemies These people are only crying to remove ban, none of these tweets show their love to Prophet Nowadays people only use excuse that da’wah will stop if they stop using these websites, well you can preach using thousands of other websites and beleive me Jews(twitter owners) have some intelligence they know that if they will not remove that content they are in loss due to the stand taken by Pakistan and they will remove that content due to this big step of Pak government and ban will be lifted So whats the big deal if you can live without twitter for few days for love of your religion
@Raheel Arif: Unfortunately, Raheel, the pages are on Facebook, and can be accessed if you're outside Pakistan (or if you use a proxy). The pages and events have NOT been removed from Facebook. You can confirm this yourself by performing a Google search; the events are public.
Pakistan's supposed pressure on Facebook has only had the effect of hiding the content from Pakistani users, not forcing Facebook to remove anything. Do you feel better off now, now that you know that people are talking about our Prophet (PBUH) behind our backs AND thanks to our government, we can't even visit the pages to report the posts?
@Muhammad Ayaz: The problem here is that your love for our Prophet (PBUH) is preventing you from praising him in response to the supposed blasphemies. It's also preventing people in Pakistan from promoting Islam.
So, is this a ban on Twitter? Or a ban on da'wah?
@Big Rizvi Forcing twitter to remove that kind of tweets is called DARK AGE in your dictionary then we are happy to be in dark age Remember why facebook agreed to remove those pages this time,because they know that when Pakistan IT ministry says that they will ban website, they are actually serious about it. And after such kind of ban twitter will also learn the lesson You people never appreciate a good step by our government And we should be proud that this time its PAKISTAN who forced facebook to remove pages not any other Muslim country
i am very thankful to PTA n government that it has blocked twitter i love to use to twitter but my love for the the holy PROPHET PEACE BE UPON HIM is much more than theses social networks even more than anything
Media plz provide us news not your views which are baised
Still stuck in the dark ages are we? And we refuse to come out of it. Welcome to Denialistan.
perhaps this ban will be lifted after the NATO conference and Mr. Sadr Sahab returns home.
Why is our media so biased ? Majority of people on facebook are supporting this ban yet you only post those tweets that are against it ?
I am not even sure that these tweets are from Muslims in Pakistan. After Pakistan took such a stand twitter will be forced to stop these tweets (they are earning millions by users of pakistan), you people can't even stop using twitter for some days for your Prophet Or you are in modern age it does not even matter to you that people are making fun of your Prophet kindly remove the label of muslim from your selves You are simple Hippocrates...
if important ministries such as IT ministry are given to ignorant and corrupt people like Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, things like these are bound to happen ... this ministry was once run by Ata ur Rehman and now is being run by Raja Ashraf ... this comparison alone is enough to understand and imagine the depths of ignorance and darkness we have fallen into and the height of plight of this nation ...