Now Pakistan's Blocking YouTube

Crackdown adds site to growing list
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted May 20, 2010 9:46 AM CDT
Now Pakistan's Blocking YouTube
A Pakistani Internet user surfs the YouTube Web site at a local Internet cafe in Islamabad, Pakistan on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008.   (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)

Yesterday, Facebook; today, YouTube: Pakistan has blocked access to the video-sharing site—along with 450 other links, including some Wikipedia pages—because of its “growing sacrilegious content.” The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority didn't refer to specific offensive material, but said it acted after the site failed to take down the "derogatory material."

YouTube, which was blocked in the country for a short period in 2008, says it is "looking into the matter and working to ensure that the service is restored as soon as possible," reports the BBC. The crackdown springs from a court ruling yesterday ordering Facebook banned because of a page urging people to draw caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. (More YouTube stories.)

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