Pakistan Lifted Ban On Youtube But Facebook Still Banned

The Pakistani government lifted a ban on video-sharing website YouTube after the company took down “blasphemous” footage but retained a temporary ban on social-networking site Facebook imposed earlier this week, the country’s telecommunications regulator said Thursday.

But a YouTube spokeswoman said Thursday afternoon that the video site is still being blocked there.

A Pakistani Islamist holds a placard during a protest in Karachi against the published caricatures of Prophet Mohammed on Facebook.

Access to YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc., was cut earlier in the day but restored after the San Bruno, California, company had “taken off from their website highly offensive blasphemous footage,” the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said, without specifying what content sparked the ban.

Facebook remained blocked after the Lahore High Court ruled on Wednesday that authorities should shut the site down until May 31.

The High Court was ruling on a petition brought by the Lahore-based Islamic Lawyers Forum, which was protesting a Facebook page called “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!”

Facebook, based in Palo Alto, California, hadn’t taken down the Facebook page as of late Thursday. On Wednesday, Facebook said the content didn’t violate its terms but added that it understood it may not be legal in some countries, the Associated Press reported.

The creators of the page, which has more than 90,000 followers, say in a personal-data entry that the site isn’t meant to be disrespectful to Muslims but is challenging extremists who have threatened violence against people because of their depiction of Muhammad. These include Dutch newspaper Jyllands-Posten and the U.S. animated television series “South Park.”

Depictions of Muhammad are offensive to many Muslims, including moderate followers of the faith. Islam proscribes idolatry and traditionally Islamic art has been based on calligraphy and architecture, not portraiture. A rival Facebook group, “AGAINST ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!’” had more than 100,000 followers late Thursday.

In Pakistan, public protests have broken out in recent days against the Facebook page. But many Pakistanis have questioned putting a blanket ban on Internet sites.

Other nations, including Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, have tried and failed to block offensive pages on YouTube and Facebook in recent years as users can find ways around bans. Pakistan has implemented limited bans on Internet content in the past, including YouTube.

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