Facebook access restored
LAHORE:
The Lahore High Court on Monday lifted a ban it imposed on the social networking website Facebook on May 19.
Justice Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry lifted the ban after a representative of the ministry of information technology told the court that access to blasphemous material will be restricted in the future. Also the ministry of foreign affairs submitted a reply in the court stating that it has lodged a complaint with the US government over Facebook hosting a page that called for a competition to draw sacrilegious caricatures. Deputy Attorney General Naveed Inayat Malik appeared on behalf of the government and told the court that US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke has also been informed about the issue and he has assured that such an incident will not occur in the future.
Director telecom and wireless from the ministry of information technology Mudassir Hussain told Justice Chaudhry that the ministry has spoken to the senior management of Facebook who have assured it that accounts of all such users who try to upload any blasphemous material in the future will be blocked. He said that chief security officer of Facebook Joe Sullivan has assured the ministry that Facebook itself will filter data made available on the website.
Justice Chaudhry asked the government to develop a system to block access to blasphemous content online, as in Saudi Arabia. “Restore Facebook. We don’t want to block access to information,” he said. “It is the government’s job to take care of such things, which spark resentment among the people and bring them on to the streets. They should take steps to block any blasphemous content on the Internet,” Justice Chaudhry added.
Access to Facebook was being restored in the evening, around nine hours after written instructions were received, said a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers’ Association of Pakistan.
“My technical staff say that it is open now,” Wahaj-ul-Siraj told AFP. PTA spokesman Khurram Mehran said: “We issued instructions to Internet service providers to unblock Facebook. However pages containing blasphemous content will remain blocked.”
Access to YouTube was restored last week - which together with Facebook accounts for up to 25 percent of Internet traffic in Pakistan.
Additional input from AFP
Published in the Express Tribune, June 1st, 2010.
The Lahore High Court on Monday lifted a ban it imposed on the social networking website Facebook on May 19.
Justice Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry lifted the ban after a representative of the ministry of information technology told the court that access to blasphemous material will be restricted in the future. Also the ministry of foreign affairs submitted a reply in the court stating that it has lodged a complaint with the US government over Facebook hosting a page that called for a competition to draw sacrilegious caricatures. Deputy Attorney General Naveed Inayat Malik appeared on behalf of the government and told the court that US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke has also been informed about the issue and he has assured that such an incident will not occur in the future.
Director telecom and wireless from the ministry of information technology Mudassir Hussain told Justice Chaudhry that the ministry has spoken to the senior management of Facebook who have assured it that accounts of all such users who try to upload any blasphemous material in the future will be blocked. He said that chief security officer of Facebook Joe Sullivan has assured the ministry that Facebook itself will filter data made available on the website.
Justice Chaudhry asked the government to develop a system to block access to blasphemous content online, as in Saudi Arabia. “Restore Facebook. We don’t want to block access to information,” he said. “It is the government’s job to take care of such things, which spark resentment among the people and bring them on to the streets. They should take steps to block any blasphemous content on the Internet,” Justice Chaudhry added.
Access to Facebook was being restored in the evening, around nine hours after written instructions were received, said a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers’ Association of Pakistan.
“My technical staff say that it is open now,” Wahaj-ul-Siraj told AFP. PTA spokesman Khurram Mehran said: “We issued instructions to Internet service providers to unblock Facebook. However pages containing blasphemous content will remain blocked.”
Access to YouTube was restored last week - which together with Facebook accounts for up to 25 percent of Internet traffic in Pakistan.
Additional input from AFP
Published in the Express Tribune, June 1st, 2010.