DESIGN: ANUSHAY FURQAN
ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rahman has called for a meeting with the Inter-Ministerial Web Evaluation Committee after Eidul Fitr to deliberate over blocking blasphemous content and to review the ban on video sharing site YouTube.
According to a release from the ministry, the Ministry of IT and stakeholders had been tasked to research how to block offending content appearing on both hyper text transfer protocols (HTTP) and secure HTTP.
In the meeting scheduled after Eid, the committee will deliberate on the findings following which the Inter-Ministerial Committee, headed by the Secretary IT, will present its recommendations on reviewing the ban to the Prime Minister.
Committee had recommended blocking of YouTube, Facebook
When protests erupted across the Muslim world in September, 2012 after the sacrilegious video clip gained prominence, the Inter-Ministerial Committee evaluated the circumstances in Pakistan and concluded that Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) should block YouTube and Facebook in the country till further orders. YouTube was subsequently blocked in Pakistan.
The Ministry of IT had subsequently taken up the matter with the management of YouTube and Facebook for blocking the blasphemous content.
In response, Facebook restricted the access and upload of the video. However, Google Inc., management of YouTube, did not remove the content stating that the content complied with its community guidelines. It also resisted multiple requests from the White House to remove the content.
YouTube, however, had blocked content in Indonesia after request from the government. The content was blocked in Saudi Arabia after the government there threatened to block the site. It took a court order in Brazil to block the site.
PTA yet to block content
Following the IMC's evaluation and directive to block blasphemous content in addition to a policy directive in May, 2012 to deploy state of the art technical solution to "proactively and independently" block pornographic sites and other objectionable content.
The ministry said that PTA, which falls under the Cabinet Division and not under the administrative control of Ministry of Information Technology, has been unable to comply with those directives.
COMMENTS (15)
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Actually,Web filtering is not at all a bad idea in view of our religious and cultural values.The main issue is to decide proper parameters for filtering to block content which is blasphemous,racist and violent etc.
And the best way to implement it is to take into account complaints and feedback from local internet users and then to decide whether to block a particular URL based on the filtering parameters already decided.
Now,the job of ministry of information technology and telecom is to form a policy and decide about these parameters.The ministry should make sure that the parameters involved do not violate freedom of speech and expression or give it enormous censorship rights.
Otherwise,it would be just like sending all print newspapers for censorship to information ministry before they are published giving it infinite power to censor anything involving editorials,opinions,news stories.
So clearly the decision of these parameters is a delicate matter.
If someone is watching porn in his or her home, how is that hurting anyone and why is it the any concern of the government? You cant police thoughts and would anyone want to?
1 year has passed and they still are meeting on how to block certain contents?? I hate this word HOW. Peak of incompetency.
Let the provincial Assembly of Sindh Pass a legislative Bill on Up lifting Ban on UTube and let the center keep it's Ban on the Taliban infested Bureacracy in Punjab & Islamabad !
@XR: "Hurrah! Finally humanity is evolving in Pakistan" ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The only issue is the direction of the evolution:)
ET,
Pakistan's got bigger problems than Youtube. Focus on them instead and please get a life!
Kind regards,
Note said in this article is that more than 50 countries (including Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and Brazil) have set up LOCALIZED YouTube hubs for their respective countries so that they can control what content is allowed in their countries! The list of those countries is readily available on Wikipedia on the YouTube page (expand the "localized" section). Maybe Pakistan could actually do what many other Muslim countries have accomplished and move toward setting up a Pakistan localized YouTube hub instead of these endless futile plans for "filters"!
Really, an inter-ministerial meeting to decide whether people should have essential freedom of expression and right to gather information and decide for themselves whether it is appropriate to look through or not?
Why do we make simple things complicated and never scratch the surface of more complicated problems?
This is a really difficult and complex problem to solve. Are their brains in the GOP to make a decision???
Do they just love to hold meetings and have endless cups of tea??? Nobody cares at this point whether the Ban is lifted or not, we all watch Youtube anyway.