Pakistan has lifted the ban on popular video-sharing Web site, YouTube -- after removal of the allegedly "blasphemous" movie clips from the Web site. Pakistan had banned YouTube Friday over "anti-Islamic" movie clips posted by users on the site. The clips were based on an upcoming movie by Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilder, who'd previously said that his movie portrays Islam as a fascist religion, and as prone to inciting violence -- especially against women and homosexuals.
Lawmakers in Pakistan promptly ordered a ban on YouTube, over the movie clips they deemed as "blasphemous". The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) issued notice to 70-odd Internet Service Providers (ISPs) asking them to ban access to the site. The PTA has now asked these ISPs to lift the ban on YouTube, following removal of the clips considered 'anti-Islam'. Incidentally, several other videos featuring Geert Wilders are still kept visible to Pak Internet users; the "totally anti-Quranic... very blasphemous" clip has been removed, the Associated Press (AP) quoted spokesperson for the PTA, Nabiha Mahmood, as saying. She further said that the clip simply promoted Wilder's upcoming movie without giving further details on content. Meanwhile, following the Pak ban on YouTube, the Web has been abuzz with reports of how, in imposing the ban, Pakistan mistakenly caused a global YouTube outage for several hours over the weekend. It is learnt that Pak ISPs hijacked the Web servers of YouTube to block access to the site within Pakistan. But that in doing so, details of the hijack leaked out into the wider Internet, causing YouTube to be blocked -- not only in Pakistan but also across the globe -- for long hours on Sunday. During the time that the Pak ban on YouTube lasted, everyone (even outside Pakistan) who tried to access YouTube ended up getting redirected to a virtual Black hole. Stung by all this criticism, Mahmood tried to explain that the Pakistani regulator was not responsible for the 'technical glitches' that might have led to the global outage. That, it wasn't clear how those occurred. Meanwhile, AP quoted Abdullah Riar, Pakistani Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications as saying, "We are already in the spotlight on the issue of intolerance and extremism and terrorism, and this (read: ban) is something that somebody is doing by design to excite and insinuate Islamic sentiments."
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