Pakistan blocked You Tube, 450 links in the countryside

Pakistan, home to half of the largest Muslim population in the world, blocked Google Inc. service YouTube and over 450 web links and the government has increased the crackdown on the Internet material deemed blasphemous.
Sites were blocked because of the increased level of profanity and derogatory material, the basis of Islamabad, Pakistan Telecommunications Authority said in a news release today. The regulator, which makes access to the site Inc. closed yesterday Facebook, other sites to block blasphemous content, "said Khurram Mehran, spokesman of the regulator.
Pakistan escalating campaign of online censorship after a Facebook user to create a page with an invitation to other cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, considered by Muslims as blasphemous act of drawing. Demonstrators gathered in Karachi waving banners and chanting slogans against Facebook and text messages circulated yesterday to ask users of the site in Pakistan to support the ban.
"The attitude of administrators on Facebook and YouTube is in violation of resolutions of the WSIS and its own stated policy on the web for the general public," said Mehran in the statement, referring to the World Summit on the Society Information adopted by the United Nations. "PTA would like to see the competent authorities of Facebook and YouTube to communicate with the PTA to resolve the problem."
Blackberry Browsers
Google looks at the issue and working to ensure its YouTube service is restored, the Mountain View, California, the company said in an e-mail. Agency Facebook not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
The regulator has also blocked Internet browsers on Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry phones, Mehran, said today.
A Facebook user to set up a page called "All Day Draw Mohammed", inviting others into a representation "creative and funny Muhammad sent May 20, according to the site.
"We just want the extremists to threaten people because of their images Muhammad evil we're not afraid to show them," according to the description page of Facebook. "They can not leave our right to freedom of expression, trying to scare us to silence."
Pakistan has an effective plan for the anti-Islam to avoid "hurting the feelings of Muslims", state-run Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Religious Affairs Saeed Kazmi Islamabad naturally. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Kazmi at a meeting of Islamic countries to formulate a common policy to deal with the anti-Islamic to do, APA.
Court Ban
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Facebook blocked after the Lahore High Court to prohibit the Department of Information Technology, she charged, according to Mehran.
Now, stop in the Constitution of Pakistan and is an expansion of the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Government's policies, "said Mehran. The controller has a number of phone calls for regulatory sites with offensive content knowledge, the statement said.
Caricatures of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper in 2005 led to protests from the Muslim community around the world include
Blackberry Browsers
Google looks at the issue and working to ensure its YouTube service is restored, the Mountain View, California, the company said in an e-mail. Agency Facebook not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
The regulator has also blocked Internet browsers on Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry phones, Mehran, said today.
A Facebook user to set up a page called "All Day Draw Mohammed" and others calling for a creative and humorous representation of Muhammad sent May 20, according to the site.
"We just want the extremists who threaten people because of their images Muhammad evil we're not afraid to show them," according to the description page of Facebook. "They can not leave our right to freedom of expression, trying to scare us to silence."
Pakistan has an effective plan for the anti-Islam to avoid "hurting the feelings of Muslims", state-run Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Religious Affairs Saeed Kazmi Islamabad naturally. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Kazmi at a meeting of Islamic countries to formulate a common policy to deal with the anti-Islamic to do, APA.
Court ban
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Facebook blocked after the Lahore High Court to prohibit the Department of Information Technology, she charged, according to Mehran.
Today, stop in the Constitution of Pakistan and is an extension of orders by the High Court of Pakistan and the Government's policies, "said Mehran. The controller has a number of phone calls for regulatory sites with offensive content knowledge, the statement said.
Caricatures of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper in 2005 led to protests from the Muslim community around the world, including Pakistan. The cartoons, one of the prophet with a bomb in his turban and accompanied by an article on freedom of expression and self-censorship in the media.
Pakistan Internet traffic has dropped 25 percent after two sites are blocked, CNBC Pakistan reported, without citing anyone.
Pakistan ng. The cartoons, one of the prophet with a bomb inside his turban and accompanied an article on freedom of expression and self censorship in media.
Pakistan Internet traffic has dropped 25 percent after two sites are blocked, CNBC Pakistan reported, without citing anyone.

Pakistan Blocked Facebook Today

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed Internet service providers to block Facebook indefinitely on Wednesday because of an online competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad.

The order followed a decision by the Lahore High Court temporarily banning Facebook in Pakistan after the country's media reported that the competition would be held on May 20.

"The court has ordered the government to immediately block Facebook until May 31 because of this blasphemous competition," Azhar Siddique, a representative of the Islamic Lawyers Forum who filed a petition in the Lahore High Court, told Reuters.

"The court has also ordered the foreign ministry to investigate why such a competition is being held."

A spokesman for the PTA, the country's telecommunication watchdog, said the government on Tuesday ordered Internet providers to block only the Facebook page showing these caricatures. But on Wednesday the court ordered the entire Facebook site blocked.

Any representation of the Prophet Mohammad is deemed un-Islamic and blasphemous by Muslims.

By late afternoon, Facebook was unavailable to Pakistan''s computer users, although Blackberries and other mobile devices appeared able to access the site.

But some warned the court's response could backfire.

"Blocking the entire website would anger users, especially young adults, because the social networking website is so popular among them and they spend most of their time on it," said the CEO of Nayatel, Wahaj-us-Siraj.

"Basically, our judges aren't technically sound. They have just ordered it, but it should have been done in a better way by just blocking a particular URL or link."

On the Facebook information page for the contest the organisers described it as a "snarky" response to Muslim bloggers who "warned" the creators of the Comedy Central television show "South Park" over a recent depiction of the Prophet in a bear suit.

"We are not trying to slander the average Muslim," the Facebook page creators wrote. "We simply want to show the extremists that threaten to harm people because of their Mohammad depictions that we're not afraid of them. That they can't take away our right to freedom of speech by trying to scare us into silence."

Publications of similar cartoons in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked deadly protests in Muslim countries. Around 50 people were killed during protests in Muslim countries in 2006 over the cartoons, five of them in Pakistan.

Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on Denmark's embassy in Islamabad in 2008, killing six people, saying it was in revenge for publication of caricatures.

Pakistan also blocked the popular video sharing site YouTube in 2007 for about a year for what it called un-Islamic videos.

A new 'panic button' for Facebook

The social networking Web site has been criticized by UK child experts and police authorities for not doing enough to make it easier for children to report bullying or sexual abuse.

Jim Gamble, chief executive of the London-based Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center (Ceop), wants Facebook to install a "panic button."

Gamble, who is seconded to Ceop from the Serious and Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), has said that there is "no legitimate reason" for Facebook not to have a "Click Ceop" button.

Gamble is due to meet Elliot Schrage, vice president of policy and communications at Facebook and Joe Sullivan, chief security officer.

A Ceop spokeswoman told CNN the agency had received 253 complaints about Facebook in the first quarter of this year and that only one of these had come "through the Facebook environment."

"We have been trying to engage with Facebook for some time, this meeting is happening after a long build-up.

"More and more children are using Facebook and a panic button would allow them to report potential threats directly. We have experts who can respond immediately.

"Ceop says there is an urgent need to install the button and that it will help both children and parents.

A Facebook spokeswoman told: "We will be discussing many issues, there are lots of initiatives."

The lack of a Facebook panic button was highlighted after the murder of a 17-year-old student last October by Peter Chapman, who she met on the social Web site.

Chapman had posed on the Web site as a young man and spent time grooming Ashleigh before the pair exchanged mobile phone numbers and agreed to meet. After killing her he dumped her body in a field near Sedgefield in County Durham, northeast England.

Last month Chapman, 33, was jailed for at least 35 years at Teeside Crown Court for the killing.

Until now Facebook has said adopting a button would have no effect on reducing abuse and that it had a number of measures in place to report bullying or abuse.

The company, which claims to have over 400 million users worldwide, has said it has a "robust" reporting system in place.