The ban was imposed on September 17, 2012. PHOTO: FILE
The decision was made during National Assembly’s standing committee on Information Technology.
During the meeting, Ministries of Law and Information Technology said that complete blocking of anti-Islamic content on the website was impossible. They further added that YouTube was not willing to extend cooperation to the government of Pakistan in the matter.
Pakistan had banned YouTube over clips from a sacrilegious film hosted on the website that sought to ridicule Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) on September 17, 2012.
The amateurishly produced film, Innocence of Muslims, caused furore across the Muslim world precipitating into mass street protests in Egypt, Libya and in Pakistan among other Muslim countries.
The site was recently blocked in Egypt over the video.
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That's like my little four year old who shuts her eyes and says " I'm hiding...........come and find me ".
We don't expect PPP government (with Dr Rahman Malik incharge) to restore YouTube till elections because the YouTube is full of videos showing corruption scandals and other thefts of national institutions.
@Shah khalid: Your sentiments are appreciated. Why not start by boycotting everything invented by non muslims.May Allah make your will stronger.
We should ban Facebook, Google (since U tube is owned by Google), Yahoo and similar sites where there you can access lots of obscene web sites. In fact just ban internet since it is the root cause of all evils prevalent in our society.
Please sign the petition, Pakistan: lift the ban on Youtube. http://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/pakistan-lift-the-ban-on-youtube?utmcampaign=mailtolink&utmmedium=email&utmsource=share_petition
This ridiculus it shows the incompetency of GOP who failed to close the objectionable youtube sites even after four months nothing is done yet. First it was disclosed the filteration system would be installed to control these sites.Don't GOP can find availble any IT expert whose service can be utilized on this project in order to resolve the issue.
Is the movie maker at fault or the people (muslims) who choose to watch it ?
Mashallah! Please ban internet also - in fact ban electricity as well as thats made by evil jinns... hold on since the taliban will take over soon anyway I guess the goverrnment is on the right track and should hold talks with the taliban - oh good thats going to happen soon, superb!
Welcome to Talibanistan!
Youtube has more pro-islamic material then anti-islamic & our actions are based on our intentions.
Pakistani politicians are making us pay for the sad mindset of a few amateur filmmakers. Those filmmakers will be so happy that they achieved their target. They made us burn our own streets, and deprive us of the most extensive video sharing website of the world. If a sick-minded person writes a derogatory book, will we ban all the libraries? I used to access YouTube for many difficult study topics, and the vast majority of lectures and simulated videos helped me understand difficult topics in a matter of minutes. You can make a thousand similar websites but you can never upload the same amount of ever-expanding source of knowledge on other websites.
If I want to respond to that "film", and give my arguments in favor of real Islam, I cannot because utube is banned in Pakistan. So the critics have a free hand, thanks to this corrupt and inefficient government. Already, enough protest has taken place in Pakistan against that film which the world had forgotten long ago but it is we who keep on reminding them, in utter stupidity. The real reason to ban utube is that it has lots of clips on the corruption and bad governance of both the People's Party and Nawaz League. Both these parties, therefore agree on the ban. The civil society must protest this unwarranted action of the government otherwise they will also ban other means of communication, under one pretext or the other, as they are scared of the people's wrath during the elections.
Please bring back youtube.....Its been a long time since I saw Zaid Hamid threatening Ghazwa-e-Hind and his other colorful theories....
Watching his videos when u're half-drunk is better than any comedy movie
The ignorance of Pakistan continues...while the world moves forward Pakistan moves backward...what a dysfunctional country..
It would appear that Kowtowing to religious extremist is more important than providing an important source of education/learning. At some point in time your going to have to acknowledge that the only thing one can control in life is your own actions -- whether that's turning on a TV, accessing an internet site, reading a book, or saying whatever - trying to control what other people say or write is an impossible task.
my friends when u wish to study then u dnt need u tube. For study there r many more sites..and reality of politicians we knw v.well ..this site must be permanently blocked and one the problem with us (pakis) is that our entartainment is blcked..the site is blocked in many other muslim cuntries..and the peoples dnt wish to use it..so pls be a muslim and try to feel the intensity of the matter
we have to look two issues one is for entertainment and other one is foreducation purpiose so please unblock u tube
Please ban internet. Cause there is definately blasphemous stuff on it aswell which if I look for will be able to find.
What a joke of a country. Its like all the idiots of the world have somehow gathered in Pakistan and further still only the dumbest of them are in Parliament. Something definately to be proud of.
Reason is simple, stop people from viewing the exposed corruption and failure of govt by opposition, mainly Imran Khan
now we have to see there are two issues about youtube one is that it is used for entertainment and other one is very important it is used for helping in studying
There are videos exposing PMLN & PPP on YouTube and the plan is to save their faces from Tsunami Khan till the elections.
What does the government wants to prove?? Did we made the innocence of Muslims why is government punishing us by blocking our knowledge website?? Is this another political stunt by the leaving government???
Nation should be ready for more bans, because the Mujahid-e-Azam Mr. Ansar Abbasi is searching for the content on Facebook, Twitter, Google and Yahoo.
This is stupid! I might sound weird saying this but people who are against the website can simply not access it. Its not like there is a loaded gun to our heads and someone forcing us to use it. Its a simple choice! But yeah extremely democratic :)
The mullah mindset has the real power. Says it all.
grow up pakis.
Well, I would really thank them as I learnt many ways to access Youtube which I could never learn otherwise. PTA ROCKS !
"YouTube was not willing to extend cooperation to the government of Pakistan in the matter," so there is no harm in keeping it this way. It's not a life and death issue.
So being democratic means the will of the general public should be level to ground and the wishes of the power holder be imposed?