DJ Flush, over at Sizlopedia, is reporting that Pakistan has blocked Youtube.com. And judging by his post, he is located in Pakistan and experiencing it first hand. He is also providing instructions on how to get around it by accessing Youtube using a proxy.
According to Mashable, this is a response to some cartoon versions of the Prophet Mohammed that appears in a Danish newspaper a while back found their way onto Youtube. According to the story:
Islamic religious law says that no one may make a visual representation of Mohammad, and when cartoons appeared in a Danish newspaper a year ago that showed his turban replaced by a bomb, Muslims rioted in offense. With a year having passed, newspapers decided to run the cartoons again to discuss what happened, setting off a whole new round of problems. According to the Thaindian News, the offending cartoons have now found their way on to YouTube, prompting Pakistan’s government to call for all ISPs to block access to the site due to ”the ratio of non-Islamic objectionable videos has increased on it”.
Adil Najam, on All Things Pakistan, wrote that this is not only despicable but technologically it does not work. It is also a:
disturbing habit because it points towards a desire by those in authority to “control” the passions of the public. Democracy demands the very opposite – that the people control the passions of those in power.
I couldn’t agree more.
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