Climbdown: PTA restores IMDb access after public outcry

The online entertainment news portal had been blocked on Nov 19 for unspecified reasons.

KARACHI:

The government has reversed a ban on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), a widely used online movie database and entertainment news portal.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) spokesperson Khurram Mehran confirmed on Friday that restrictions on access to the website had been reversed, just days after it went into effect.

According to sources within the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK), PTA issued a notification asking ISPs to block the website on November 19 following a decision taken by the Inter Ministerial Committee.

After receiving numerous complaints regarding the decision to block IMDb from users, the ISPs raised the issue with PTA, the sources said. They added that the authority then circulated a fresh notification on Friday, asking ISPs to remove the ban on the site.

Responding to complaints that the site was still inaccessible for some users, they said removing the blocks would take some time. However, they assured that the site would soon be accessible to all users.

When asked why the site was blocked in the first place, the sources in ISPAK said they could only guess.

According to PTA sources, IMDb had been blocked ‘accidentally’ as part of its measures to crack down on grey traffic. They said the IMC had directed the authority to block illegal websites, but a glitch in the software used affected the entertainment news portal.

A credible source, however, claimed the explanation provided was a cover-up and the site was blocked for hosting ‘anti-social’ and ‘anti-state’ content.

Other sources supported the cover-up theory, saying if IMDb had indeed been blocked as part of the measures to curb grey traffic, then PTA would not have issued a notification to block the site.

The government and PTA have yet to offer an official explanation as to why IMDb had been banned, or what prompted the them to reverse the decision if, as sources suggest, it was found to be hosting ‘anti-state’ content.

Owned by Amazon.com, IMDb is a prominent source of reliable news and box office reports regarding films, television programmes and video games from all over the world. The portal is ranked number 7 on the ‘Top 10: Must-know Entertainment Websites’ by askmen.com. With 4.7 million fans on its Facebook page and a massive 995,279 followers on Twitter, the website is widely viewed across the globe.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2013.