Pakistan lifts ban on YouTube

Islamabad, Jan 18: Pakistan has lifted the ban on YouTube after nearly three years, officials said on Monday. “On the recommendation of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the Government of Pakistan has allowed access to recently launched country version of YouTube for Internet users in Pakistan,” an official statement said. The government banned YouTube after the country’s Supreme Court ordered a ban due to the blasphemous movie “Innocence of Muslims” on YouTube and other websites in September 2012. Recently, Google launched a country (localized version) of YouTube (YouTube.pk) and confirmed that YouTube.pk does not contain any copies of “Innocence of Muslims”. Moreover, in case any copy of the offending material appears on YouTube website in future, Google has provided an online web process through which requests for blocking access to the offending material can be made by PTA to Google directly and Google/YouTube will restrict access to it for users within Pakistan. (IANS)