Pakistan orders anti-Islam video block on YouTube

PAKISTAN: Pakistan on Thursday blocked access to an anti-Islam film as security measures beefed up around US diplomatic missions, following attacks on American consulates and embassies in Libya, Egypt and Yemen.

The Afghan government earlier ordered an indefinite ban on the entire YouTube video sharing site to prevent access to the film made in the United States, which Kabul said was offensive to Muslims.

“Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has proactively blocked and vigorously preventing all access to anti-Islamic video placed on worldwide web via YouTube with the name of ‘Innocence of Muslims’,” it said in a statement.

It said “the authority is in close liaison with all the service providers for immediate blocking of the provocative video”, adding that “proactive monitoring and blocking is being done, round the clock”.

The PTA, which is the main regulatory authority, is mandated to block blasphemous and pornographic websites.

“Websites which contain offensive, objectionable and obnoxious material are blocked on the direction of the government as per mandated protocols,” said the statement.

A spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan, Wahaj us Siraj, told AFP that the ISPs have blocked all the URLs with the film.

AFP