Pakistan Cuts Access to YouTube Worldwide

The New York Times reported on March 2nd 2008 that Pakistan cut access to YouTube worldwide.

The incident began Friday, according to reports, when the Pakistani government of Pervez Musharraf became worried that a video clip attacking Islam might generate widespread unrest among its Muslim population. The government asked the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, which oversees the country’s Internet providers, to cut off access to YouTube for the country’s estimated 8.2 million Internet users.

That action is not unusual. China, Morocco and Turkey have all reacted to potentially risky material posted to YouTube by blocking access to the site within their borders.

As part of its effort to block YouTube within the country, Pakistan Telecom created a dummy route that essentially discarded YouTube traffic, sending it into what Internet experts call a black hole.

YouTube has removed the video clip that had concerned Pakistani officials.

To read the full article please visit the NY Times Website.

The fact that Pakistani officials went to such measures to prevent their inhabitants from viewing these offensive videos leads us to question why YouTube allowed them to be published in the first place…

YouTube has social responsibility and it’s not living up to it.

What do you think? All comments welcome…