Islamabad (ip-192.com): Pakistan blocked access to Google's YouTube service due to "objectionable content." A day earlier, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) blocked access to the social networking site Facebook, following a court order. More than 450 web links were unavailable; including certain pages on Wikipedia and Flickr, as the government widened a crackdown on material deemed inappropriate.
While only a small percentage of Pakistan's population of 170 million has Internet access, social networking sites have grown in popularity. It is estimated that 25 million Pakistani, most of them young, use the Internet regularly. Blocking access to YouTube and Facebook will result in a 25 percent decrease of Internet traffic, the Hindustan Times reports.
The current crackdown on the free flow of information is not the first. Two years ago, PTA blocked YouTube and demanded the removal of content it deemed offensive. Facebook and YouTube will remain blocked until the end of May, but many news reports speculate that the newly instated censorship will continue indefinitely.
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