“Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Monday directed the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to unblock YouTube with immediate effect”, a senior government official told AFP.
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YouTube was blocked in Pakistan on September 17, 2012, after the release of the anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims”, ridiculing Prophet Mohammed.
Following the event, Pakistan’s Supreme Court asked the ban to be extended until there were checks in place to remove such content and Google had verified that the local version of the website did not contain any known copies of the offensive material.
The government could ask Google to block access to offending material for users within Pakistan and the ministry said Google and YouTube would “accordingly restrict access” for Pakistani users.
Google has unveiled a local variant of YouTube in Pakistan, where the site has been banned since nearly four years ago. Subsequently, the PTA while withdrawing its earlier recommendations sent to Ministry of IT on and also requested the ministry to review earlier directions.
The petition further claimed that the YouTube administration would remove the blasphemous content on the localised version if ever uploaded again. The company and Pakistani government remained in talks for establishment of a localised version of website which would not carry such content.
According to Google’s most recent transparency report, the company said that YouTube had received more than 12,000 takedown requests from governments during the second half of 2014.
The popular video-sharing website had been blocked in the country since 2012, when a blasphemous video had been shared over the internet.
Many young Pakistanis have welcomed the lifting of the ban but some activists want details of the deal with Google. With the unblocking of YouTube, millions of consumers will get benefit from fastest internet 3G services of mobile phone operators.
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Google has now removed objectionable videos and will continue to do so.
