YouTube for Pakistan – Pakistan Tech News

PTA announced to unblock the YouTube within 48 hours

Islamabad: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority received a directive from the Ministry of Information technology on Monday to restore YouTube service within 48hours.

Spokesman of the Ministry of Information Technology Sagheer Anwar Wattoo and PTA officials confirmed to issue the directive.

As the service is blocked for time being, the service is still not accessible to some internet service providers without the use of a secure (http) protocol or VPN/proxy.

By posting a photo to its official Facebook page the Pakistan Telecommunications company limited welcomed the move.

All the arguments for unblocking YouTube are complete and the standard operating procedures have been checked which is said by the PTA officials. All blasphemous content had been blocked on the localized version of YouTube are claimed by the Officials.

Informed the content has been removed along with Google’s cooperation by the IT ministry, PTA, Ministry of Religious Affairs and other agencies who were part of a committee formed to tackle the issue.

PTA Spokesman Khurram Mehran earlier confirmed the Google had launched a localized version of YouTube in Pakistan which did not feature any of the controversial content.

Google had launched a localized version of YouTube in Pakistan which did not feature any of the controversial content by the PTA Spokesman Khurram Mehran.

PTA given a reply on the YouTube ban said that on verification of this version by Google and PTA of the website does not contain any known copies of the offending material.

The PTA said if any copy appears on the website in the future, Google has “provided an online web process through which requests for blocking access [to] the offending material can be made by PTA to Google directly and Google/YouTube will accordingly restrict access to the said offending material for users within Pakistan”

Google has made it possible for the Pakistani Government to ask for the removal of objectionable videos from YouTube, this is acknowledged by PTA.

Initially YouTube was blocked in Pakistan on September 18, 2012, as the violent protests broke out all over country in reaction to blasphemous film uploaded on the website’s servers that outraged Muslims all across the world.

Once ban was lifted in early 2013,but only for a few hours after which the website was again officially inaccessible to Pakistan users.

PTA Appeals for Lift of YouTube Ban in Supreme Court

Requesting the lifting of the 3-year-old ban on YouTube, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority filed a petition in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

YouTube was blocked in Pakistan in 2012 September when it failed to remove the profane “Innocence of Muslims” movie that lead to angry protests around the world.

In today’s petition, PTA said YouTube was banned by the orders from the apex court but YouTube has launched a local Pakistan version removing offensive content for Pakistani users.

Since a local version is provided for Pakistan, the ban on YouTube is not required anymore and the court should lift the ban on YouTube, pleads the petition.

Google has announced a local version for YouTube that will be customizing content as per the Pakistan’s requirement, but the offensive content is still available on the website unlike the claim of the PTA.

Though Pakistani ISPs already opened YouTube access in Pakistan, the official lift of the ban remains in the supreme Court’s hand.

If the Supreme Court lifts the ban on YouTube, Pakistani users will be accessing YouTube after three and a half years.

YouTube is the largest online video sharing community now available locally in 88 countries and in 76 global languages includes Urdu and has more than 1 billion users monthly across the world.

Localized Version of YouTube for Pakistan

“YouTube PK” is getting displayed as the default logo for users accessing YouTube.com from Pakistan which is hinting of a localized version of YouTube rather than the regular global version that Pakistanis used till recently.

It is reported by ProPakistani users that they see the below logo on YouTube.com:.

The change in the logo is not only for Pakistan but for other users in other countries are also being served with their corresponding country’s name.

Google.com served Pakistanis with a local version for Pakistan with a Google PK logo but YouTube never served Pakistani users with a YouTubePK logo before today.

This move can result in an unspoken arrangement where the government could lift the ban on the website or may not enforce the ban like before since YouTube is displaying dedicated country code with its logo.

There is no blocking of content by YouTube for its Pakistani version which means availability of all videos in the international version for access in Pakistan also

YouTube is officially banned in Pakistan since September 12, 2012.

However, the website is accessible for most of Pakistani internet users. PTA said that this is by a mistake and will ensure the ban as per the court decree.

Since then, for over a month now, YouTube is accessible in Pakistan and is having good traffic from Pakistan.

Check below the rapid growth of traffic on YouTube:

Traffic to YouTube.com from Pakistan

Official press release from Google:

YouTube announced that it has just launched localised versions in Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This launch provides Internet users in those countries with a more tailored YouTube experience to find high quality local content so they can be informed, entertained, educated and inspired by content for their own culture and language, while continuing to access the wide array of content on the world’s largest online video platform. Now, users visiting the YouTube homepage from those countries will be able to see videos and playlists that are popular in their countries in their local languages and domains.

With over 1 billion monthly users worldwide, YouTube is the world’s largest online video sharing community, and is now available in 88 countries locally, as well as in 76 global languages, including in Nepali, Urdu, and Sinhalese. Starting today, visitors to YouTube from each respective country will see their country-specific YouTube site by default: for instance, users from Pakistan will now see the YouTube Pakistan site in Urdu when they visit the YouTube homepage, with playlists of trending and recommended videos popular in Pakistan. Viewers can now more easily find content that is beloved in their own countries, and discover more relevant local content on the world’s largest and most diverse video sharing community. This launch will also provide more people from Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka the chance to share their own stories and videos with the rest of the world.

“We aim to provide an even more tailored YouTube experience by launching versions that are optimised for Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. We also hope that this will pave the way for the work of local creators, personalities, and musicians to shine on the world’s largest and most vibrant video community,” said a Google spokesperson.

With Google’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, we are committed to protecting the exchange of ideas on all our platforms, including on YouTube. We continue to engage with industry, governments, and civil society groups globally to ensure the Internet remains open, safe, and secure. Government requests to remove content will continue to be tracked, and included in our Transparency Report.