Social media censorship: 12-hour ban leaves Twitterati in a quandary
“Yes, the website has been unblocked,” Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) spokesperson Muhammad Younis confirmed to The Express Tribune.
Asked whether the site had removed the controversial content, the spokesperson just stated: “We have been given instructions by the ministry of information and technology to restore the website.”
Authorities had blocked Twitter across the country earlier on Sunday, accusing the site of refusing to remove posts promoting a Facebook competition involving caricatures of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). Lawyer and lead researcher on Internet Freedom for human rights organisation Bytes for All, Nighat Daad, revealed that a one-line directive had been issued at 12:35am on Sunday which had ordered the imposition of a ban on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the ban had taken him by surprise and he had spoken to Information and Technology Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on why the ban had been imposed.
“He told me that a competition on drawing blasphemous caricatures was taking place and I told him that a complete ban should not have been imposed,” said the interior minister. Malik had earlier said that the IT minister had assured him that the ban would be lifted once the ‘competition’ ends, but sources later told The Express Tribune that the interior minister had spoken to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani personally and had been assured that the site would be accessible again. The ban was lifted shortly afterwards.
“We blocked the website on the directions of IT ministry due to an ongoing competition of blasphemous drawings,” PTA Chairman Dr Muhammad Yaseen had earlier told The Express Tribune.
The ministry had been in talks, during the last four days, with the micro-blogging site – an online social networking service that enables users to send and receive text-based posts – for the removal of the blasphemous content but there had been no breakthroughs, he had said.
Twitter and Facebook were not immediately reachable for comment. According to reports, the ministry tried getting through to authorities on Twitter and about five faxes were sent to the website’s management. Eventually, in reply, Twitter authorities replied saying that they “cannot stop any individual from doing anything of this nature on the website”.
Earlier in 2010, authorities had banned Facebook after protests erupted in the country over a similar competition of blasphemous drawings.
Reactions
Outrage and defiance were the order of the day with members of civil society, online activists and politicians out in force to protest the ban, using proxy servers and software to access the site while it was blocked.
Online activists were also quick with sending out links and guides on how to access the site using proxy servers, while one organisation had set up a ‘crisis response centre’ to help those unable to access Twitter for the time it was blocked. PPP MNA Farahnaz Ispahani tweeted saying that she condemned the blockade. “Freedom of speech is an inviolable right.” Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Faisal Subzwari also tweeted condemning the ban. He said that all blasphemous material should be removed, but a “ban on youth voice is not an answer.”
Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentarian Khurram Dastgir called the ban “outrageous”.
Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan’s director at the Human Rights Watch, said the ban was “ill-advised, counter-productive and will ultimately prove to be futile as all such attempts at censorship have proved to be”.
“The right to free speech is non-negotiable and if Pakistan is the rights-respecting democracy it claims to be, this ban must be lifted forthwith,” he said.
(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM AFP)
Published in The Express Tribune, May 21st, 2012.
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The world did not end without Twitter. Not one more person died. Not one more went hungry. Can't Pakistan do this much to protect the nonnegotiable honor the Prophet (pbuh) - ban Twitter and Facebook forever?
I think Pakistan can, must, and inshallah, will.
They have no idea what to do. Pakistan is always trying to be a trendsetter when it comes to trying to protecting imaginary attacks on Islam It comes from deep rooted inferiority complex in the Islamic world because the Islamic world hardly considers Pakistan a nation of any depth at all. Hence these knee jerk reactions before the world reacts so that they can be seen as taking the lead in protecting Islam. If indeed this is a consideration and purpose then Pakistan would do well in stopping killing that is taking place in the name of Islam in their own country. The world is laughing Pakistan and the world include the Muslim world too.
@Amir Wayn. Agreed completely. The blasphemy issue is old, so clearly there was some other motive. Interesting how the govt. has no shame in using Islam to divert away from their devious tricks.
@Amir Wayn: If Pakistan didn't have a record of doing this for the exact reasons stated, that might work. But it does, so that doesn't.
when will we learn that God has not given Pakistan the authority to own religion....Unfortunately we are an idiot nation......
Pakistan banned twitter,facebook etc, they did good, till they remove illegal content pak should never lift the ban. In india we should protest against content, here also we should try to ban. Insha allah we'll succeed.
Dear reader, This whole campaign was not to disallow unIslamic activies on Twitter but to crack down Anti Govt protest in response to opening NATO supply routes.
Thank you for making Pakistan a joke yet again on the world wide web
Since Islam is the state Religion, this makes sense.
The 2 things-Islam and freedom of expression don't go along. This is just another example.