YouTube banned in Pakistan

By AhmedGeneral

You read it correctly. YouTube has been deemed unsuitable for 160 million people by some morons who haven’t a clue as to what the Internet is or how it functions. It’s hard to believe that there are people who can come up with such backward ideas and yet wield such power and authority that they can govern what we need and what we don’t.

YouTube banned

There is so much dirt out there that attempting to block any of it is akin to putting up a banner announcing its presence. Why do this if it will only attract more publicity and spread the message farther? Sometimes I get the feeling that these monkeys do this kind of thing deliberately. Either they want to spread the very filth they are claiming to censor or they’re covering up something that would expose their own incompetence or that of their masters (like the vote rigging videos some people have mentioned).

In the words of a fellow blogger, maybe these guys consider our brains to be so puny that we are unable to decide between right and wrong. Their faith may be so fragile that it can be shattered by something as simple as a cartoon or a few-minute video clip, but it doesn’t give them the right to block everything like this.

With broadband Internet spreading really fast in Pakistan, sites such as YouTube were proving to be very popular and useful for us Pakistanis. They provide an outlet for creativity while being a great source of entertainment and information. What exactly is this ban meant to do? Stifle all the wonderful work that we have lately been producing?

The whole design and concept of the Internet is such that attempting to restrict access to specific content is quite futile. Because of a single offending video, they blocked the whole YouTube site. What next? Wikipedia? Search engines? Might as well block the whole Internet while they’re at it.

19 thoughts on “YouTube banned in Pakistan”

  1. Yes, it is totally absurd for them to block the entire website just because of one or a handful of videos at best. If they must block it, why couldn’t they block just THAT video? How freaking hard can it be?!

  2. I was anticipating this thing.
    All the Web 2.0 applications are a possible threat for them. Where people share and get benefit from such a massive resource.

    I’m speechless at this idiotic act.
    What the hell is wrong with youtube ..NOW!

  3. Actualy about 6 videos were loaded on youtube that were showing rigging in the polling stations during the elections. now i think all of them have been removed except two. i am not sure how long they will remain there.. Govt just cant bear free journalism on tv, youtube is impossible for them

  4. Well, according to Awais’s comments, I thought about giving you guys a hint of how to downloaded those banned videos from the internet, yes, it will be the youtube video.
    just open
    http://www.videoconvertx.com

    enter your email in the email box, and
    enter the video url (example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq4sC2Mq85k) above,,, select Avi as the format and you’ll receive a link in your email shortly. from there on, you can download the video and keep it in your records… lol..
    regards,,
    Anonymous

  7. i accept youtube or anyother site ban as long it does not hurt our religious values, freedom of speech does not mean that one could exploit religious affairs.
    instead of blaming PTCL, look at your own acts/deeds etc. We as Muslims should stand hand in hand with eachother.

  8. Fawad, Yes, freedom of speech doesn’t give anyone the right to abuse other religions. However, we Muslims are especially prone to manipulation of all sorts.

    Maybe you can stop using the Internet altogether since it simply isn’t possible to block each and every such site otherwise.

    Nobody knew about the cartoons or this video until we were manipulated to take the issue to a global scale. Who have the bans and protests hurt most?

  9. Well, the Chinese seem to be doing a darn good
    job at controlling the internet… Actually as
    the technology gets better and better and the
    filtering algorithms get smarter and smarter
    we get closer and closer to the goal of total
    information control… So I think you are wrong,
    it is possible to almost completely filter the
    internet now, and in a few years it will be
    possible to do so completely. You end up
    blocking a lot of legitimate stuff that way
    too, but heck I guess that never bothered the
    authorities, did it?

    Hmmmm… That would be a good SciFi story plot
    actually the huge AI built to filter The Muslim
    Internet away from The Heathen Internet wakes
    up and starts taking over the whole internet,
    editing stories on CNN & etc. As The Heathens
    read on CNN ‘Allah is great’ they start believing
    (they believe everything else on CNN already),
    and the world turns Muslim…

    Could probably get that made into a Hollywood movie.

    (Not realistic tho, the reason the muslims will
    win is that you have more babies. Christians are
    de-populating themselves out of existence, silly
    buggers).

  10. Well, the Chinese seem to be doing a darn good
    job at controlling the internet… Actually as
    the technology gets better and better and the
    filtering algorithms get smarter and smarter
    we get closer and closer to the goal of total
    information control… So I think you are wrong,
    it is possible to almost completely filter the
    internet now, and in a few years it will be
    possible to do so completely. You end up
    blocking a lot of legitimate stuff that way
    too, but heck I guess that never bothered the
    authorities, did it?

    Hmmmm… That would be a good SciFi story plot
    actually the huge AI built to filter The Muslim
    Internet away from The Heathen Internet wakes
    up and starts taking over the whole internet,
    editing stories on CNN & etc. As The Heathens
    read on CNN ‘Allah is great’ they start believing
    (they believe everything else on CNN already),
    and the world turns Muslim…

    Could probably get that made into a Hollywood movie.

    (Not realistic tho, the reason the muslims will
    win is that you have more babies. Christians are
    de-populating themselves out of existence, silly
    buggers).

  12. I did not find youtube blocked at any given time …. I had full access to it, I checked when I got the same news from a friend!!! how can this be?!?!?!

  13. Saad, it depends on which international link you were using to access the site. PTCL/ITI/PIE blocked the entire domain (and even ended up bringing down the service) while TWA1 only blocked the offending video.

  14. this time, the general opinion is that th ban is more “political” than “cultural”. A large number of videos with actual footages of electoral rigging were placed on YouTube and the view is that the “ban” or the “technical difficulties” that have come up are really a way to distract attention in Pakistan away from these videos, at least for the time being.
    The ban – if, indeed, it s not a technical hitch, may or may not be because of the videos. Even if it is not, it is despicable for the same reason previous bans were. And even if it is not, the videos themselves are despicable for all the obvious reasons. All of this will, of course, become all the more despicable if, indeed, there is a real ban or other government interference in this and it is because of these videos.

    I have no such issues with Youtube. And if u have experienced any of our local hospitality emails, you’ll know that they never give out names or emails. Its akin to suicide should a company does so.

    As far as I’m concerned, this is a purely politically motivated precautionary measure, nothing religious.

    On the rigging, I have however failed to see ballot papers going inside the ballot box. Marking ballot paper receipts with thumbs and fake ids, doesn’t make any sense. Those parts are for reporting. These videos aren’t going to prove anything.

    the part about YouTube not being available all over Pakistan IS confirmed. It is also NOT a maintenance issue at YouTube’s end. That is also confirmed. As to why it is not available in Pakistan right now and whether it is anyway linked to these video’s, all necessary caveats are in the post itself.

    Hasan
    AestheticTech.net

  17. hi. i am an indian and i totally agree with u. try other video sites like megavideo guys. they cant ban everything out there..

  18. Dear Sir/Madam,

    I am a Pakistani user and have seen that YouTube.com has been banned in Pakistan.If you prefer my website http://www.embedproxies.com then they could easily access to the vedios at YouTube.com by submitting the url and surfing them anonymously.

    Have a look at the website and do let me know whether you like my idea or not.

    Regards,

    http://www.embedproxies.com

Comments are closed.