Pakistan has become the latest country to complain about Facebook.  No, not about privacy measures, for once.  The devoutly Muslim country has gone as far as banning Facebook and YouTube on the grounds that they contain content that is sacrilegious and may offend Muslims.  It’s all for the protection of the people!  At least, that’s how the official excuse goes.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) claims they tried every legal means at their disposal to get caricature images of the prophet Muhammad removed from Facebook, and to get YouTube to remove scandalous videos.  However, since those two websites originate from countries that really enjoy freedom of speech, they weren’t able to get their wishes met.  Hence, the drastic action of banning them.

Here’s the official statement:  “PTA after all possible avenues were used within its jurisdiction, including using regular channels available on the FACEBOOK and YOUTUBE to launch protest, to avoid appearances of derogatory material available on their websites which increased in numbers as time passed by, that PTA decided to completely shut down these sites from being viewed within Pakistan.”  Yeah, good luck with that.

Image:  cubicgarden

Tags: Pakistan bans Facebook, Pakistan bans YouTube, Facebook, YouTube, Pakistan censors internet, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), sacrilegious content, Lahore, Pakistan, Islam

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