ISSUE
Friday, August 15, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 72
New Delhi: After banning popular sites like ‘Facebook’ and ‘Youtube’, Pakistan has further blocked 800 web pages and URLs to limit access to ‘blasphemous’ material, reports from Islamabad said Saturday.
The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) had banned access to Facebook, YouTube and other links, which included restricted access to Wikipedia, in view of what it called ‘growing sacrilegious content’ this week.
“At least 800 individual web pages and URLs have been blocked since the government's orders to shut Facebook and YouTube,” Wahaj us Siraj, a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan, was quoted in media reports.
A major controversy surrounding the popular networking site ‘Facebook’ had erupted in the country after a Facebook user had organized an ‘Everyone Draw Mohammed Day’ competition to promote ‘freedom of expression’, though he has since then taken down the page along with a separate blog about the campaign.
The competition had sparked angry protests in Pakistan, especially since Islam strictly prohibits the depiction of any prophet as blasphemous.
Though the Facebook page had attracted over 100,000 fans, pages denouncing the competition had drawn more support.
Any decision to restore Facebook and YouTube access would be taken by the PTA.
A PTA spokesman said that the authority would lift the ban only after receiving instructions from the government.
New Delhi: After banning popular sites like ‘Facebook’ and ‘Youtube’, Pakistan has further blocked 800 web pages and URLs to limit access to ‘blasphemous’ material, reports from Islamabad said Saturday. The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) had banned access to Facebook, YouTube and...
New Delhi: After banning popular sites like ‘Facebook’ and ‘Youtube’, Pakistan has further blocked 800 web pages and URLs to limit access to ‘blasphemous’ material, reports from Islamabad said Saturday.
The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) had banned access to Facebook, YouTube and other links, which included restricted access to Wikipedia, in view of what it called ‘growing sacrilegious content’ this week.
“At least 800 individual web pages and URLs have been blocked since the government's orders to shut Facebook and YouTube,” Wahaj us Siraj, a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan, was quoted in media reports.
A major controversy surrounding the popular networking site ‘Facebook’ had erupted in the country after a Facebook user had organized an ‘Everyone Draw Mohammed Day’ competition to promote ‘freedom of expression’, though he has since then taken down the page along with a separate blog about the campaign.
The competition had sparked angry protests in Pakistan, especially since Islam strictly prohibits the depiction of any prophet as blasphemous.
Though the Facebook page had attracted over 100,000 fans, pages denouncing the competition had drawn more support.
Any decision to restore Facebook and YouTube access would be taken by the PTA.
A PTA spokesman said that the authority would lift the ban only after receiving instructions from the government.
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