Tech ability: Minister summoned on plea against YouTube ban

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court has summoned the information technology minister and the secretary for August 2 to respond to a petition challenging the ban on YouTube.

Appearing before the court on Thursday, ministry and PTA officials submitted that they could not block all blasphemous material on the internet.

The court directed the officials of the ministry to devise a strategy to block access to such sites in response to public complaints.

Petitioner’s counsel Advocate Yasser Hamdani submitted that any filtering of internet sites was counter productive. He said there were technologies available to help block controversial content on YouTube.

The site was blocked across Pakistan on September 17, 2012, in response to protests against an anti-Islam movie.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2013.