What next for great firewall of Pakistan?
Saturday, 22 May 2010
Are we seeing the creation of the Great Firewall of Pakistan?
In extraordinary moves, the country's authorities first blocked Facebook, and then YouTube. The two websites stand accused of containing images of the Prophet Muhammad that are deemed blasphemous.
The blocking of these websites is not the beginning of an elaborate internet filtering system, such as the one operated by censors in China.
Indeed, many experts have said that it would have been possible just to block individual offending pages on the sites.
Instead, Pakistan's High Court and its Telecommunications Authority took more draconian measures, ordering the country's internet service providers to block the websites in their entirety.
What could be next on the blacklist? Users on Twitter have already claimed that that Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, and Flikr, the photo-sharing website, have been blocked in the country.
In the past, Pakistan has blocked YouTube and Blogger.com, but those blockades were temporary. It is expected that the current ban will not be a permanent measure, but no time period has been given.
However, it does seem likely that the bans will affect the country's growing number of internet users.
Nayatel, an internet service provider, said the ban could cut up to 25 per cent of total internet traffic in Pakistan. --Times Online
In extraordinary moves, the country's authorities first blocked Facebook, and then YouTube. The two websites stand accused of containing images of the Prophet Muhammad that are deemed blasphemous.
The blocking of these websites is not the beginning of an elaborate internet filtering system, such as the one operated by censors in China.
Indeed, many experts have said that it would have been possible just to block individual offending pages on the sites.
Instead, Pakistan's High Court and its Telecommunications Authority took more draconian measures, ordering the country's internet service providers to block the websites in their entirety.
What could be next on the blacklist? Users on Twitter have already claimed that that Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, and Flikr, the photo-sharing website, have been blocked in the country.
In the past, Pakistan has blocked YouTube and Blogger.com, but those blockades were temporary. It is expected that the current ban will not be a permanent measure, but no time period has been given.
However, it does seem likely that the bans will affect the country's growing number of internet users.
Nayatel, an internet service provider, said the ban could cut up to 25 per cent of total internet traffic in Pakistan. --Times Online