Internet users in Pakistan welcomed the return of YouTube on Tuesday (January 19), a day after the government removed a three-year ban on the Google-owned video-sharing website.
YouTube has agreed to launch a local version that allows the government to demand removal of material it considers offensive.
Pakistan banned access to YouTube in September 2012 after an anti-Islam film, “Innocence of Muslims” was uploaded to the site, sparking violent protests across major cities in the Muslim-majority country of 190 million people.
Under the new version of YouTube, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) can ask for offending material to be blocked, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom said in a statement.
The ministry said that on the recommendation of PTA, the government of Pakistan has allowed access to the recently launched country version of YouTube for internet users in Pakistan.
The government could ask Google to block access to offending material for users within Pakistan and the ministry said Google and YouTube would “accordingly restrict access” for Pakistani users.
Pakistani users of YouTube said they were happy with the government’s decision to lift the ban.
“I hail the government to uplift (lift) the ban over the YouTube. Now we are foreseeing that the social media marketing business will grow now. More, then previously, previously we were losing those YouTube customers. We were using potential proxies, and not many people are, you know, tech savvy to use those proxy servers. But now as the ban has been uplifted (lifted), we can see a lot of potential in the social media marketing now,” said Asad Azizi, owner of a digital marketing company.
Another user who works as a travel agent was glad to be able to use YouTube again because it is a beneficial tool to gain information and knowledge from.
“It is good that the ban has been lifted from YouTube. We get a lot of information and knowledge from YouTube. Suppose you are related to the field of electronics, you can study things from YouTube videos and gain knowledge. These days people can learn many things from the YouTube videos. So, it is beneficial,” said Travel Agent, Zeeshan Azam, adding that the removal of blasphemous content was necessary.
Abdul Rehman, an Information Technology professional in Lahore, said he was happy but the government should have done it earlier.
“We are happy that YouTube has opened in Pakistan after three years. Specially, our IT professionals will reap the benefits. We used to look out for many of our tools on the site. Both experts and students were facing difficulties. If you (the government) were going to do all of this after three years, you could have done it earlier. Anyway, better late than never,” said Rehman.
Google, however, said that it would not automatically remove material without conducting a review, and that the vetting process was the same as in other jurisdictions with local YouTube versions. Government requests to remove content would be publicly reported, it added.
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive subject in Pakistan, where angry mobs have killed many people accused of insulting Islam. The crime of blasphemy can carry the death penalty, although a death sentence has never been carried out.
Pakistan has blocked thousands of web pages it deems undesirable in the last few years as internet access spreads, but activists say the government sometimes blocks sites to muzzle liberal or critical voices. (Reuters)