YouTube Back in Pakistan, Bajrangi Bhaijan No More Factually Wrong

The three-year-ban on YouTube has been lifted in Pakistan after it was banned in 2012.

The ban has been lifted. (Photo: Youtube)

Pakistan said, on Monday, it had removed a three-year ban on YouTube after the Google-owned video-sharing website launched a local version that allows the government to remove material it considers offensive.

<p> On the recommendation of PTA, Government of Pakistan has allowed access to recently launched country version of YouTube for Internet users in Pakistan.</p>

<b>Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom, Pakistan</b>

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom said in a statement that under the new version of YouTube, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority can ask for access to offending material to be blocked.

The prohibition on YouTube access was in place as the mother company of YouTube, Google could not provide a country-customised version of YouTube.

Why Was YouTube Banned in Pakistan?

Access to YouTube was banned in September 2012 after an anti-Islam film, “Innocence of Muslims”, was uploaded to the site.

The film sparking violent protests across major cities in the Muslim-majority country of 190 million people.

On 12 January, google launched a Pakistan specific homepage for Pakistani users, according to a report by Pakistani news portal The Express Tribune.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan, while hearing a case seeking unbanning of YouTube, was presented with a report by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) explaining the new filter by Google, according to a report by Dawn.

<p>Google has provided an online web process through which requests for blocking access of the offending material can be made by PTA to Google directly and Google/YouTube will accordingly restrict access to the said offending material for users within Pakistan.</p>

<b>Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA)</b>

On 17 January, the PTA told the Pakistan Supreme Court that there is no reason to keep the ban on YouTube in the country.

Pakistan has blocked thousands of web pages it deems undesirable in the last few years. It was one of the points of contention among the Pakistani audience of Bollywood film Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

In the film, a journalist named Chand Nawab spreads the word about Bajrangi’s good deed – dropping a Pakistani child back to her village in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) through YouTube.

Even as the internet access has increased in the past years, activists say the government sometimes blocks sites to muzzle liberal or critical voices.

(With agency inputs.)