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Pakistan Lifts Ban on YouTube After Launch of Local Version


FILE - Pakistani students try to access YouTube in Karachi, Sept. 5, 2013. Pakistan removed a ban on YouTube after the Google-owned video-sharing website launched a version that allows the government to remove material it considers offensive.
FILE - Pakistani students try to access YouTube in Karachi, Sept. 5, 2013. Pakistan removed a ban on YouTube after the Google-owned video-sharing website launched a version that allows the government to remove material it considers offensive.

Pakistan said on Monday it had removed a three-year ban on YouTube after the Google-owned video-sharing website launched a local version that allows the government to demand removal of material it considers offensive.

Pakistan banned access to YouTube in September 2012 after an anti-Islam film, "Innocence of Muslims", was uploaded to the site, sparking violent protests across major cities in the Muslim-majority country of 190 million people.

Under the new version of YouTube, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) can ask for access to offending material to be blocked, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom said in a statement.

'Allowed access'

"On the recommendation of PTA, the government of Pakistan has allowed access to the recently launched country version of YouTube for internet users in Pakistan," the ministry said.

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.

FILE - A computer screen shows the blocked site of Youtube at an internet cafe in Rawalpindi, Sept. 18, 2013.
FILE - A computer screen shows the blocked site of Youtube at an internet cafe in Rawalpindi, Sept. 18, 2013.

Google, however, said that it would not automatically remove material without conducting a review, and that the vetting process was the same as in other jurisdictions with local YouTube versions. Government requests to remove content would be publicly reported, it added.

'Community guidelines'

"We have clear community guidelines, and when videos violate those rules, we remove them," it said in a statement.

"Where we have launched YouTube locally and we are notified that a video is illegal in that country, we may restrict access to it after a thorough review."

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive subject in Pakistan, where angry mobs have killed many people accused of insulting Islam.

The crime of blasphemy can carry the death penalty, although a death sentence has never been carried out.

Pakistan has blocked thousands of web pages it deems undesirable in the last few years as internet access spreads, but activists say the government sometimes blocks sites to muzzle liberal or critical voices.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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