Pakistan

Twitter blocked in parts of Pakistan

Express May 21, 2010

KARACHI: Internet users in Pakistan are in uproar once again.

According to latest reports, Twitter, the popular micro-blogging website - which had become a hub of activity following the nationwide ban on Facebook and YouTube - was inaccessible to a number of internet users across Pakistan on Friday. The PTA has denied the overall blockage of Twitter and has stated that any users experiencing difficulties with the site should contact their ISPs.

So far, two Twitter accounts are confirmed as blocked by the PTA for containing blasphemous content.

"It is a childish and immature reaction, and has grave consequences which were not considered because those protesting against Facebook and blocking Twitter have no knowledge of how these sites were being used for good," said one local high school teacher in Karachi, who wished to remain anonymous. "I was counselling my students and guiding them in their ongoing studies through Facebook. I had ex-students in touch with me for guidance regarding their future academic decisions. Who will guide them now?"

Another online activist said that the blockage of Twitter was an act of censorship and a violation of basic rights. "Twitter doesn't even contain images so how can it be a part of the blasphemous cartoons episode?" he said. "They may as well ban the whole internet because immature reactions like this will only act as a catalyst for further reactionary offensive acts against Muslims online. The original offending Facebook page has swelled to close to 100,000 followers because of Pakistan's protest."

Pakistani Telecommunication Authority (PTA) blocked Facebook following a Lahore High Court (LHC) order to ban the website temporarily till May 31. On May 20, PTA also blocked the popular video sharing website, YouTube for hosting "blasphemous content". Wikipedia and Flickr.com were also blocked by various ISPs on May 20.

The controversial page by the name "Draw Muhammad Day" had been created by a Facebook user in response to American cartoonist, Molly Noris's protest to the decision of US television channel, Comedy Central to to cancel an episode of the popular show “South Park” over its depiction of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).

Noris has however disavowed having declared May 20 "Draw Muhammad Day" and has condemned the effort and issued an apology.

Many Pakistanis were enraged by the hosting of sacrilegious content by Facebook and anti-Facebook protests were carried out across the country. At the same time, a group of civil society activists against internet censorship held a press conference to protest the curbs on various websites by Pakistani authorities.

Facebook said it was disappointed on being blocked in Pakistan and was considering making objectionable content inaccessible in Pakistan.

COMMENTS (31)

owais | 14 years ago | Reply ban the damn computers,laptops,cell phones ! every problem will be solved ! =p !

Hunain Ali | 14 years ago | Reply Twitter is blocked, It is confirmed. They are also trying to block proxy websites..personally i think they are doing the search on Google and they are blocking every other page that has the word 'Everybody Draw' :) Damn it..Lets join hands and tell the solutions to all the people who want to use Facebook/Twitter/Youtube. I just pray they don't end up banning the internet in our country :P

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nasir | 14 years ago | Reply 45

Anum Batool | 14 years ago | Reply The government is now playing with the educational lot of Pakistanis who are rational enough to thinking about the good in context to the blanket ban of FB and other websites. The govt.is now over-reacting and trying to hide their own mischievous activities that have been on screen of millions of Pakistanis in the name of banning Youtube and wikipedia etc. In the same case,blocking twitter which is not yet a confirmed news to me, will also be a real absurd attempt of PTA. Twitter is only a micro-blogging network and it has nothing to do with spreading immoral content regarding the blasphemy.

ayman | 14 years ago | Reply WIKIPEDIA IS ALSO WORKING

Jahanzaib | 14 years ago | Reply twitter working in pakistan. PTA has not banned twitter. PTA respect those sites who do not promote blasphemous contents.

Naveed Babar | 14 years ago | Reply Well They earn billions of dollars every year, so this loss does not mean for them, bcuz ban is just put of FB from PK , non of other Muslims countries i heard took such a step. If any1 you guys have info about other Muslims countries banning of FB let me know.

naureen | 14 years ago | Reply @ another muneeb: i know this is so irritating these protesters think tat all these sites r jst a way for bunch of teenagers to gossip. wat they fail 2 understand is tat sites like fb r helping small businesses to grow. n atleast for me youtube was not jst a mean of entertainment i used 2 learn through it as well, for example i learned how to oil paint through youtube. yeah surely i can live without learning new things or I'll find another way to do so but being a citizen of a free country i shouldn't hav to.Allah gave us free will than who r u to take it away

another muneeb | 14 years ago | Reply @absar,naureen and muneeb....couldnt agree more. @asma We all love our Holy Prophet(P.B.U.H), every muslim does but Banning a site wont do a thing.u wil just end up publicizing that website more than ever. making the situation even worse like pakistan just did by banning the site there were round about 30000 members of that group but after this whole ban thing their numbers have shot up to 1lac or so.in my opinion the solution would be to ignore. u cannot shut the mouth of every person on this earth. furthermore what if every single website puts such content on purpose just to keep us out of there? would u recommend blocking the whole internet? whats more banning a site doesnt meant the hateful content will cease to exist it is still there and anyone can access it outside pakistan so i dont get the point of this blocking spree. u(just ppl in pakistan cant see it).yes it might cause them a lil bit of financial loss but definitely not enough to bring them to their needs.and btw please mention the source which says that faebook is facing BILLIONS of loss. @nawaz: "no person in pakistan uses twitter facebook for a research purpose" seriously??? not everyone is like u.i was learning fbml "FACEBOOK MARKUP LANGUAGE"..Its a webdev language and was learning it just for the sake of learning but now i cant coz there is no wikipedia page for it. itz been blocked because it was developed by facebook and works with facebook. http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/FBML and like muneeb said its upto an individual as to how he/she would like to protest, there is a difference between protest and forced censorship. what terrifies me is this majority of people in pakistan protesting to ban sites dnt even knw what twitter, wikipedia etc are about.

Tayyaba | 14 years ago | Reply salam 2 all banning FB is a gud act made by pta it should banned atleast 31 of the month bt the thing that is increases day by day that FB will have a huge loss by banning. sme1 tell me ven it reopens n 100000+ people will login then their loss vill itself heal up.Not only FB othr sitez r also banned, if there will b a limited sitez 4 info then hw v vill do our studiez or other in4mative work??? complete banning is not the soln. v should first follow the rules nd regulation our prophet(p.b.u.h)taught us. y don't v try 2 make ourselves so strong by acting upon the steps our prophet(p.b.u.h) told us, nd make ourselvz strong 2 that point where such shameful people cant reach.v just show anger 4 few dayz and then all situation vill b normal as b4... y cant v try 2 seek a PERMANENT solution...if v vill not then such awwful people won't stop trying 2 humilate our relegion... such site n people simply wants a fame which they got.

Muneeb | 14 years ago | Reply Absar, that definitely cannot be ruled out as a possibility! And how can we forget pornography? I'm sure thats actually more detrimental to society than Facebook, Twitter or Youtube! On account of immoral and blasphemous content, the PTA acted swiftly to ban Youtube, but access to Youporn is of without any problem. Upon asking the PTA director, and i quote " Humara current issue facebook aur blasphemous content hai, porn nahin" Bless his soul.

N Gul | 14 years ago | Reply and i totally agree with Absar and Muneeb!

Mubarak. | 14 years ago | Reply Asma, I agree with you....100%

naureen | 14 years ago | Reply @absar : u jst said wat im thinking since morning. this whole fiasco doesn't make sense. when PTa succeed to block tat particular page earlier this week than what was the point in blocking the whole site. and than blocking Wikipedia n twitter. for god sake do common Pakistani even understand internet. every possible human thought in this world is on internet than why r v creating such big deal out of this one when its not even doing n e good to the situation. tat ridiculous page saw increase in its fans since this whole ban thing started. v gave it free publicity n according to some reports these sites will only gain profit frm this whole thing. so i think in ur own way u all emotional fools participated in this sin. n jst for a moment ask urself wat will our beloved Prophet(p.b.u.h) would hav done in this situation. certainly He(p.b.u.h) wouldn't hav made a fiasco out of it and certainly He wouldn't hav allowed Muslims to suffer the burn of some sick mind's mischief. i jst hope ppl of Pakistan come to their senses soon so tat v can go on with r lives n i can write against western society's so called human rights instead of writing about the foolishness of my nation.

NAWAZ | 14 years ago | Reply PTA has done a good job by banning these sites. no person in pakistan uses twitter facebook for a research purpose. proud to be a muslim. proud on pta, lahore high court. proud to be a pakistani

tehreem | 14 years ago | Reply this is insane..twitter has nothing to do with that crap! they're cutting us off from the rest of the world and our friends! however i support the decision of banning facebook. BUT I NEED TO USE TWITTER!

nasir | 14 years ago | Reply Wrong story twitter is working properly

Absar | 14 years ago | Reply Salaam All. Please hear me out before you call me a whacko! Have any of you recently read stories about how the government wants to limit internet/media due to the true/bad publicity they are creating for the government?? Not only in Pakistan but worldwide? The internet is becoming a headache for governments worldwide. Think for a moment!!! Do you think the government might be using this cartoon issue (despicable as it may be) as an excuse to limit access to free information to the public?? Go one step further! Could the government have fanned the flames on this issue on purpose so that the mass public itself would demand restrictions on the net?? And it would demand the government ban certain sites that promote 'freedom of speech'?? Is there a conspiracy here that we are failing to see?? What real steps did our ‘Islamic’ government take in response to the flushing of the Qur’an down the toilet by American soldiers?? Why the renewed faith all of a sudden?? Are we Pakistanis unknowingly falling into a trap??? Are we being manipulated into giving up our access to free information?? THINK!!! I am very serious here. Soon... because of what we ourselves demanded... the banning of Facebook... the governement is now banning all channels to information including YouTube, Wikipedia, Rense.com, and soon.. we will only have access to that information which the government feeds us. I smell something rotten!!

Muneeb | 14 years ago | Reply @ Asma and everyone else First of all, this article is about Twitter. What did Twitter ever do, since there aren't even pictures! Secondly, religion should be a personal matter between you and God. Why does the government have to act? If you take offense, it is your personal right to boycott Facebook. And if you feel strongly about it, you can convince others to do so as well - there were many event pages for this exact purpose. What about the thousands who do not take offense, or are not Muslims? Why should they have no access? Thirdly, the creators of this page were looking for exactly this kind of publicity. The Pakistani government played right into their hands. They wanted to draw attention, and thats exactly what they got. Why did Pakistan have to do something like this? What about all the other Muslim countries - Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia to name a few. I think Pakistan just can't and won't stay out of the limelight.

Ahmed | 14 years ago | Reply Finally we(Pakistanis) realize the power of information. Whether it will be used for good or evil is yet to be seen.

Smanz | 14 years ago | Reply ^* Just want to update the UAE comment that: Facebook is NOT banned in UAE! Get your facts straight!

Mahves | 14 years ago | Reply Dk, these countries have blocked Facebook because of their extremely tight censorship policies. China prohibits criticism of the government and they don't allow any such sites where people can air their opinion against the government. The same applies to the other countries which are highly repressive of their citizens. You tell me now, are you the fool to want to live under such a system?

Asif Sheeraz | 14 years ago | Reply It is a tragic fact 70% humans livings on this globe are muslim but even than this is happening. Then what other muslim countries are doing? We Pakistanis are only at least doing something to condemn these activities. But more tragedy is that we are becoming violent when non-muslims degrade(NAUZBIALLAH) our beloved MUHAMMAD (SAW) and we ourself disobey him 24 hours every second. Please also try to follow and practice values taught by MUHAMMAD (SAW). I greatly appreciate the Court’s ruling. I feel proud that Pakistan is the only Muslim country that blocked facebook because of that stupid group. i feel that this is a respond to the entire world that Pakistanis arent that stupid after all. And to be honest, i feel that NO facebook has made my life better. Instead of snooping into people’s lives, I can actually spend more time on important things in my own life. So thank you high court! It should be banned permanently!

Smanz | 14 years ago | Reply @dk: uhh... YES! UAE: Idiots sitting on oil and then using it built the "biggest and largest" that and this while its social structures weakens! Plus, it advertises itself as the most pro west investor friendly country! China: The country which frequently violates almost every human right in existence. May I remind the Tienanmen Square, Tibet's independence issue and oh yeah... it bans everything and anything that speaks against its govt... yes China can teach us a lot BUT on human rights; it is like asking a gardener about rocket science! Finally, Iran: Yes, a country with a long history of theocratic dictatorship.... aside from banning everything that goes against its ideology, Iran recently displayed the corruption in its "democratic" process when Ahmedinajad was re-elected in a clearly rigged election. What followed next was a HUGE protest movement by the Iranian youth but a crackdown soon followed which started a bit similarly like our govt.'s actions..... Maybe that's what we need now.... the educated youth of the country to take to the streets and demand the final vestiges of democracy be protected.

ZHP | 14 years ago | Reply We had options. We always do. However, the men in charge consistently make misinformed, immature and embarassing decisions. Rather than impose a ban, we could have started our own page, something like a petition, asking people to petition for a removal of the page on the basis that it is against social and community principles to insult and degrade another religion? Every pakistani facebook user whould have joined the petition. Non pakistani's who understand the sensitivity of the issue would also have joined in. In this, we would have shown maturity and the ability to respond in a sensible manner. Theres no doubting the fact that Pakistan blocking the page has made it more popular than ever. What about the other muslim countries? eg. malaysia and indonesia.. Have they banned facebook?? There is no doubt that said page is in violation of social and community principles. FYI @Asma, Banning facebook does not cause facebook to lose millions. in fact, this extra publicity will eventually cause pakistani's who are not on facebook to join facebook. What course of action would be taken should a derogatory message against islam be SMS'd in Pakistan? Do we ban the use of cell phones? And revert "back" to old ways of communicating.

abid | 14 years ago | Reply Asma baji lets not talk about facebook. This article is about TWITTER. Now can you tell me why twitter was banned?

M.Asif | 14 years ago | Reply Very Wellsaid Asma

dk | 14 years ago | Reply if it is "" It is a childish and immature reaction, "" then Why UAE, China and Iran has also blocked it ? Can anybody explain ? these all countries are fool ?

Nauman Akhtar | 14 years ago | Reply Very sad to hear that our own people are against the decision :(

Asma Sayani | 14 years ago | Reply I just want to ask few questions to that High School Teacher. First of all what are those grave consequences? is it 0ne can not know what's going on in his/her friends' lives? or can not see pictures of friends? Another question is that how she used to help her students in ongoing studies and making future decisions when there were not any face book or twitter? It sounds that her students' future depend on the these social networking sites only? If its true that what she is teaching in school? The controversial page named “Draw Muhammad Day” had been created by a Facebook user to protest on the decision of US television channel, Comedy Central to to cancel an episode of the popular show “South Park” over its depiction of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). If they can do such a humiliating act in the name of protest so why can't we just ban that site which can cause them loss in billions? There's a reaction of every action. If pakistan wouldnt impose ban on such sites so how could they know that we wouldnt tolerate any thing against our Prophet(PBHU)? why we became so much addict of such social netwroking sites that we can not think to live without it? It is disgusting that we can compromise on offensive acts against Muslims but not on our so called basic rights...

Zoya Rehman | 14 years ago | Reply Something sinister is afoot - Twitter has nothing to do with this controversy! There's definitely more to this unjustified behaviour. This is just disconcerting.

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