ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube in a bid to contain “blasphemous” material, officials said on Thursday.

The blockade came hours after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed Internet service providers to stop access to social network Facebook indefinitely on Wednesday because of an online competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad.

Wahaj-us-Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, an Internet service provider, said PTA issued an order late on Wednesday seeking an “immediate” blockade of YouTube.

“It was a serious instruction as they wanted us to do it quickly and let them know after that,” he told Reuters.

YouTube was also blocked in the Muslim country in 2007 for about a year for what it called un-Islamic videos.

A PTA official, who declined to be identified, said the action was taken after the authority determined that some caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) were transferred from Facebook to YouTube.

Any representation of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is deemed un-Islamic and blasphemous by Muslims.

Siraj said the blocking of the two websites would cut up to 25 per cent of total Internet traffic in Pakistan.

“It'll have an impact on the overall Internet traffic as they eat up 20 to 25 per cent of the country's total 65 giga-bytes traffic,” he said.

Publications of similar cartoons in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked deadly protests in Muslim countries. Around 50 people were killed during violent protests in Muslim countries in 2006 over the cartoons, five of them in Pakistan.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on Denmark's embassy in Islamabad in 2008, killing six people, saying it was in revenge for publication of the caricatures.
source:http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/...material-ss-01

wikipedia,youtube,twitter,flicker and many other sites are blocked.

LAHORE: A chain-SMS initiated on Tuesday reached thousands of mobile phone users by Wednesday, urging Facebook members to download and run a bug to help crash the website.

The text message read, “Hello guys, I need volunteers. Please forward this message to as many people as you can. I have made this software to stop the Facebook page promoting the ‘Draw Muhammad Day’ competition. I just need people to run the software with me for a mass attack that will bring Facebook to its knees.” The message ends with the software developer’s email address. If you mail him, you get an auto-reply within seconds that points you to a link with two downloadable files.

The first promises to send ping requests in thousands to Facebook. Abbas Hayat, a software analyst explains, “A ping request is a small packet of data sent to a web server or website to gauge how quickly it responds. It primarily checks for latency.” “If multiple users simultaneously managed to ping one site repeatedly, it can very easily clog it. The webpage crashes and nobody can access it. The overburdened site recovers only after it has replied to millions of pings.” “This is called a ping attack.

If the person is asking users to download a particular software, then once downloaded the software will automatically keep pinging the page,” he added. The second file on the link is an application that promises to repeatedly open the webpage drawmohammedday.com. The developer leaves this explanation, “Every site has limited bandwidth. If it gets a lot of traffic suddenly, the bandwidth congests and the webpage can be effectively taken down temporarily.

However if we keep this up over a period of time, the website can be crashed permanently”. Abbas explains, “Theoretically the advertised attack is possible. But every user who downloads the application needs to leave his/ her computer switched on and have access to a constant internet connection for the attack to be successful.” “Facebook is a massive website and it would require at least a million users to choke up the page. But with the LHC ban on the website until May31, the software will no longer be able to send ping requests until the ban is lifted.” “This venture can continue once the website can be accessed,” he added.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/14617/fa...it-was-bugged/

__________________
No matter how fast i run or how far i go it wont escape me, pain, misery, emptiness.

Internet services suspended on Blackberry. PTA Spokesman

DEADLYDOCTOR
twitter is still working......

__________________
Defeat is not when you fall down, it is when you refuse to get up. So keep getting up when you have a fall.

@ crown prince
this is not possible and of no use.
as facebook has large and efficient servers. it will request time out error and stops ip request. so its useless.

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Reality is something you rise above.

the good news surfaces:
facebook page that was to celebrate the "DRAW MOHAMMAD DAY" is hacked by a Turkish Muslim.and the news at BBC just reported that the boycott made by muslims against the facebook for the last 2 days has resulted in their losses upto 2 billion euros and if we continued this boycott, after 7 days, this loss will mount to 40 billion euros.
of course, a good news.
CONGRATS TO ALL THE MUSLIM UMMAH.

__________________
Recite a Darood Shareef at least once and now.
(RAFIQUE AHMED KHOKHAR)

@formqau
nice to hear you bro!
but this loss is nothing to what they did.no financial loss can be big until it stops them from doing this again. a lesson should be taught and such acts should stop to occur.

@red flower
i cannot open twitter at my computer but this page is opening in other areas.

__________________
Reality is something you rise above.

After facebook Youtube is gone now.Sooner or later it was
going to happen as these sites are increasingly becoming unbearable.
Strict checkup should be applied to these sites.They will soon know
the consequences of their actions when all Pakistanis and all Muslims
will stop using these satanic sites.
Never activate these sites again.we can live without them.
Just hack their sites and destroy them like never before.
They should be taught such a lesson that may compel them to think
before doing any thing like this in future.
Welldone Turk bro.

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engr.saad

@fromQAU,

Dear indeed it's a good news but not confirmed by any authentic source except few of the sites who also didn't mention the source.

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http://www.lemonbits.net/ has started campaign ANTI-DRAW-MUHAMMAD (P.B.U.H) -DAY

__________________
No matter how fast i run or how far i go it wont escape me, pain, misery, emptiness.

WASHINGTON: Facebook is disappointed at being blocked in Pakistan over a contest that encourages users to post caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and may make the offending page inaccessible to users there, the social network said late Wednesday.

“Most companies approach this issue by preventing certain content from being shown to users in the countries where it is illegal and that is our approach as well,” it added.



http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/...pakistan-zj-09


Well done Pakistani judiciary and executive ....we need this harmoney in future also...

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Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.

UAE bans facebook.

__________________
Recite a Darood Shareef at least once and now.
(RAFIQUE AHMED KHOKHAR)