YouTube has been blocked by Pakistan over what it terms to be inappropriate content, that is Movie on The Prophet which it considers as blasphemy.
It ha s asked Google to remove content but of no avail.
So the position in Pakistan is that YouTube remains blocked with surfers not being able to browse non controversial contents.
The US Government, despite Pakistan’s pleas can do nothing for to ensure removal of the content by Google, Pakistan must sign the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) with the US before asking the America-based company Google (which owns the YouTube)to remove the objectionable content from the website.
Pakistan is unable to decide either way.
To complete this process Pakistan Government must have the will to sign.
The dilemma is if Pakistan signs, then Militant groups will react for having surrenders to US Company.
If it does not ,non fundamentalist Groups will be restive.
A bunch calling itself a Government, where a President is facing corruption charges,a Prime Minister who has been asked to vacate his seat by the Supreme Court, besieged by The ISI,Army, Fundamentalists,,Moderates,Pro US lobbies…what can it do!
Split Personalities can not function, let alone decide. .
Story:
Since blocking the YouTube five months ago in the wake of protests across the country over a blasphemous movie, the government has done practically nothing to either get the objectionable content removed from the website or open access to its non-controversial pages for millions of internet users.
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Explaining the reason, the convener of the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK), Wahajus Siraj, said: “Unlike Pakistan,
countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Indonesia and Malaysia have entered into agreements with the US. Under the MLAT, these countries are in a position to request Google to follow local laws and remove the objectionable content from YouTube,” said Mr Siraj.
The IT expert said the agreement safeguarded interests of the service provider (Google in this case) by not holding it responsible for any blasphemous or anti-state content posted online by individuals/users.
According to Mr Siraj, absence of the treaty was why, despite repeated requests from Pakistan, Google has not taken out the anti-Islam movie. Access to YouTube was blocked on Sept 18 last year following protests in the country.
“Even India has signed the MLAT with the US and because of this New Delhi is able to get all objectionable contents blocked without denying access to YouTube,” Mr Siraj said. According to a senior official of the ministry of information technology there was a status quo on the matter. “The Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty if signed is the only way to restrict/block blasphemous material on internet, but there is no progress yet on the matter,” the official said, adding that without signing the agreement links and websites would have to be manually blocked which was not possible.
http://dawn.com/2013/01/28/govt-doing-nothing-to-resolve-youtube-issue/
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