Pak blocks 800 URLs
PTI
ISLAMABAD, MAY 22
Pakistani authorities have blocked 800 URLs that feature “blasphemous” and “sacrilegious” content in the wake of the ban on Facebook and YouTube, a representative of the country’s association of internet service providers said today.
Acting on an order of the Lahore High Court, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority initially banned popular social networking website Facebook over a page featuring a contest for “blasphemous” cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.
The ban was later extended YouTube and other links.
The move also affected access to Wikipedia and Twitter, internet users said.
“So far, two sites and about 800 URLs have been blocked to prevent access to blasphemous and sacrilegious content,” Wahaj-us-Siraj, a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan told PTI.
Siraj said that since the author of the page on Facebook featuring the blasphemous cartoons had been removed, the PTA “probably needs to go back to the Lahore High Court, and then the court could lift the ban”.
