LHC Orders PTA to Ban Facebook in Pakistan

By Mehwish Khan · Wednesday, May 19, 2010 157 Comments

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Facebook Protest 300x168 LHC Orders PTA to Ban Facebook in PakistanLahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday ordered to block Facebook till May 31 which encourages members to draw Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) caricatures.

Justice Ejaz Chaudhry said that the government should record its protest at international level.

Hearing a petition regarding blasphemous page on Facebook, Chaudhry Zulfiqar Advocate said that Facebook hurt the emotions of Muslims with the publication of said page about blasphemous caricatures but the government became a silent spectator.

Deputy Attorney General Naveed Inayat Malim said that PTA has blocked the blasphemous link of Facebook. Director Telecom Mudassar Hussain said that there would be great loss after the complete closure of Facebook. Lawyers and civil society representatives protested the statement of Director Telecom.

The government yesterday had directed the PTA on the orders of LHC to block the blasphemous caricatures link on Facebook. After the directive, the PTA took necessary steps and blocked the link on Facebook.


Update: ISPAK has confirmed that PTA has directed all ISPs to completely ban Facebook till May 31st, 2010.

Update: Micronet sent following email to its customers

Micronet has blocked access to www.facebook.com in compliance with orders of Lahore High Court passed today.

Facebook has been holding a competition to draw caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and has not removed the objectionable hate materials despite thousands of emails from Pakistani facebook community.

This access would remain block till 31 May 2010 or further orders by the Lahore High Court.

Best Regards

Manager
Technical Assistance Center
Micronet Broadband Pvt. Ltd.
Islamabad

Update: 5:44 PM – May 19, 2010

Facebook Ban LHC Orders PTA to Ban Facebook in Pakistan

Update: Following is PR from Ministry of IT and Telecom

BLOCKAGE OF FACE BOOK WEBSITE DUE TO PUBLICATION OF PROFANE ANTI ISLAMIC CONTENT ON ITS WEBSITE.

ISLAMABAD: MAY 19, 2010

In compliance with the orders of Honourable Lahore High Court, Lahore, on the Writ Petition No.10392/10, dated the 19th May, 2010, the Ministry of Information Technology has issued a directive to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block the ‘Face Book’ and all other internet links displaying sacrilegious caricatures of the Holy Prophet.

Ministry of IT has also directed the PTA to remain alert and watchful and block all such links displaying the profane caricatures immediately.

Ministry of IT has requested public at large to contact a dedicated Telephone No.0800-5505 and e-mail address: complaint@pta.gov.pk , to transmit necessary information, should anything to the effect of objectionable caricature get displayed/propagated at any website.


  

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157 Comments

  1. [...] Related Stories LHC Orders PTA to Ban Facebook in Pakistan [...]

    • Muhammad Zahid says:

      Dear Sir

      Well done PTA
      May Allah bless everyone who did something to ban Facebook in Pakistan

      UR
      Muhammad zahid

    • Muhammad Zahid says:

      Dear Brothers

      (20th May)
      It’s extremely painful and humiliating.

      It is only because we all Muslims are weak and powerless due to shameless leadership (Almost All Leaders) who bent us at our knees. Their corruption, Ridiculous decisions has had damaged a lot. Really made us helpless

      (Can any leader say I bring my money back to Pakistan where Face book Moderators are crunching our hearts)

      Let’s all promise now to fight against corrupt and spine less leaders

      We will Inshaala compete all blasphemed people and Nations with technology, Knowledge and Muhammad (PBUH). Love

      Brothers work hard to

      • Earn Knowledge (all kinds of specially Technological).
      • Not using imported goods.
      • Fight against lawless ness, and Injustice with your vote
      • Be United
      • Act wisely (With logic and reason )

      May Allah Bless you

      Thanks a lot

      • Mr Mohammad zahid i liked yours very encouraging words and good advice to pakistani nation. I noticed that westerners think we are cowards and slave, and this is just of our selfish leaders, so thanks i was so hurt and was inferiority complex,that now our prophet personality is not even safe and they people have come to make us totaly nacked. one thing again our amam \sao3d arab did not said any thing its so shamed,, there duty was to call all uma for ban facebook, so shame.

  2. A for Apple says:

    PTA should do what they did to youtube, redirect it to some dummy site – most of the routers in world will see this as fastest path to FB and will redirect all users…. and once complete – PTA can apologize to FB ;) …. I will like it!

    • Good Idea. I like that! But will it really work?

      • A for Apple says:

        It worked for YouTube – here is the article…

        http://www.technewsworld.com/story/61821.html?wlc=1274270654

        “The PTA asked Pakistani ISPs to block access to three IP addresses that are associated with YouTube’s site.

        The ISPs could have used one of several methods to block access to the IP addresses, Danny McPherson, chief research officer at network infrastructure security provider Arbor Networks, told TechNewsWorld.

        They could have deployed access-control lists on all their router interfaces leading to those addresses; routed the three IP addresses to a null, the ISP equivalent of a black hole on the network; or basically have all packets that were being sent to or from those three IP addresses automatically discarded by the network.

        The second option requires the ISPs to add static routes to every router in their networks. However, the effect of that is to tell the world that traffic to those three IP addresses should be sent to the ISPs instead of to YouTube.”

  3. Najeeb says:

    AWESUM AWESUM! cant believe…. LHC took the BEST action.. i must say this is called UNITY to show our gratitude to our BELOVED BELOVED Prophet Muhammad(P.B.U.H).

    I cant express my feelings of happiness over this decision. I hope to see FACEBOOK completely banned throughout Pakistan for atleast next 10 days.

    And if they do again in future, we must PERMANENTLY Ban facebook. (yes we can live without Facebook… Facebook TEAM is very proud of its product) but we DITCH such a cheap product whoese owners are ATHIEST and BIASED…

    May Almighty Allah curse them on Day of Judgement.
    Surely Allah is greatest Power. Allah-Akbar!

  4. Abdulrehman says:

    MashAllah… Facebook should be completely banned forever and so is youtube just like in China.

    They are hurting Muslims/

  5. Alam says:

    Good step.

  6. Rehan says:

    Muslims are alive….Allah-O-Akbar

  7. Yes this is indeed a good step and I am glad to see my fellow Pakistani Muslims supporting this decision.

    But the government needs to do more. The government should take up this matter further and protest at international level.

  8. Ali says:

    Facebook completely banned for me. Okara – PTCL Broadband.
    Thanks LHC. Go to hell Facebook.

  9. Tanveer Akhtar says:

    Aamir Bhai why Director Telecom Mudassar Hussain said that there would be great loss after the complete closure of Facebook ????
    Why he is so caring about lost of facebook ?

  10. Athar says:

    Only in PAKISTAN. We should really completely ban technology in Pakistan and again start living in caves. Like ostrich and pigeons we like to hide our face from realities. Rather than ban a single page the whole of facebook has been banned Subhan Allah.

    • Rarian Rakista says:

      Your children are already around the ban on Facebook, some of them are supporting the atheists in their rights to draw the images. All you are doing is creating a distance between you and your children that may lead to them overthrowing your country, lol.

    • Fawad Akhtar says:

      So is a single site the representative of all technology? There are always other options, we don’t have to stick with biased people.
      If you love a stupid site more than your honor that’s fine. But I support the ban and I deactivated my account at exactly 20th of may. I have better things to do than looking at lame pictures all day. I prefer space.com and other educational sites.
      Be liberal but don’t be a supporter of the Kuffar.

  11. Atif Ashfaq says:

    very gr8 step by LHC…and yes i totaly agree,PTA should do what they did to youtube i.e redirect it to some dummy sites and once complete then after a day or two PTA can revert and do a fake apologize to FB……facebook go to hell

  12. Haris Humayun says:

    ALLAH HO AKBAR great decision proud to be a a pakistani

  13. Haris Humayun says:

    lets bycott more produst from there country

  14. aamir says:

    Maybe because he also not able to access the site in these 10 days and Many important people miss him there :p

    good step taken by LCH

  15. Gaurdian says:

    I really appreciate the court’s action, but it would have been really great if a couple hours notice were given to users to remove/deativate their account. More users could have changed their display pic. This way the message given to FB could have been more clear.

    Banning FB will cleary result in lost revenue of local social media advertising agencies, who will eventually contact FB directly to remove the blasphemous pages. This is a good step taken by LHC, but some planning may have resulted in a sharp hit.

  16. Rana Hammad says:

    With great power, comes great responsibility!

    According to me, all social networking sites should apply some limits or make some policies so that no one should be able to write or share anything about anyone’s religion or anyone in history.

    If this is not controlled, then there will be chaos everywhere. We have so much limited life and we are still fighting over religious issues. No one should be able to make such comments or post anything which is a disgrace for others.

    I hope everyone understands and these social networking sites which have become giants in their respective domains should feel the responsibility.

    An outstanding step taken by the government of Pakistan. Facebook is banned by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. Let’s hope Facebook realize and remove such events/groups from its site.

    http://ranahammad.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/goodbye-facebook/

  17. lovely says:

    its a v nyc step proud to be a paki
    ND PROUD to be a MUSLIM
    ALLAH O AKBAR

  18. Almoy says:

    Shamefully, Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, Sindh and Baluchistan doesn’t seems to care of Hazrat Muhammad (P.B.U.H) and prefer their dear Facebook!

    • Shaheer says:

      buddy people from sindh were posing videos which were praising Prophet Mohammed Saww and debating with that, though it is a gr8 work of panjabis i must say

    • Ahsan Chaudhary says:

      what a lame coment i must say !!! stop being a racist !!

      • aLMOY says:

        @Ahsan: Don’t put your lameness of mind on others. Why did others not initiated the step? Include those Dear Arabs too now, wondering what made them like facebook so much over their dear Muhammad

  19. Cyko says:

    GReat Great decision this is PAKISTAN ! Long live Pakistan just made me Proud ! GOD BLESS Pakistan! but
    its sad to know that how unilateral FREEDOM OF SPEECH is ” Hey Facebook, RESPECT ethics arent u civilized, arent u amused when ur mom gots banged and rest of internet laughs about it” !

  20. Pakbits says:

    still working in Islamabad on neyatel network

  21. Ozair says:

    Shamefully other provinces didn’t bother to do this!
    Only Punjab was awake enough for that!

  22. Gravity says:

    Access Denied. Realli good step from LHC for a protest at large!!

  23. NJM says:

    That’s fantastic I am really happy!

  24. eAhmadNowaz says:

    Amir Bhai, Have a question?

    I can still browse Facebook at my cell phone (Opera Mini 5, UC Web) at Zong GPRS…
    all these work..

    m.facebook.com
    touch.facebook.com
    wwww.facebook.com

    but when I tired all above links at “Mobile Regular Browser (Nokia)” n PC bowers (Opera, Firefox, IE8 n Chrome) they didn’t go browse…

    then why still at mobile? Please inform concerned authorities about it too.

  25. Allah Akbar says:

    You all have no sense of humor at all!

    • Umar Bin Zahid says:

      Better you first elucidate your inclination first… we ain’t here for fun… our religion is not fun!!!

    • Umar Bin Zahid says:

      There’re only two religions; The religion of Allah(the only God) and the religion of Lucifer(Iblees)…. Alhumdulillah I am entirely into the religion of Allah

  26. Aayan says:

    Hi guys as you know that Pakistan Government has banned Facebook, which is a very brave and good Action. Now i am going to give you a alternative website’s link, where you can perform almost all those kinds of activities which u were able perform at Facebook. All of you login at http://www.netwatan.com. Its Pakistan’s first ever social networking website and i guess now this is the time when we should support Pakistani Products and services, so that our industry could grow and can reach to the International level, so that it would become easy to voice our objections on different matters like this matter of facebook. Thanks and do loging to Netwatan.

  27. woww..amazing…Masha Allah
    thts the wonderful action taken by PTA..
    May Allah guide others as well …Aameen
    Namoos-e-Risalat par Jaan bhi Qurbaan hay!! – Insha Allah!
    em so happyyyyy…cant express my feelings for the ppl who struggled for it…
    May Allah Ta’ala keep us firm & steadfast on the true path -Ilaahi Aameen

  28. Bilal Baloch says:

    great step. now facebook will realize that what muslims can do. Great work.

  29. Waqas says:

    Very good step , but it is not banned completely , I checked on my Mobile , its working on Mobile , it must be banned on every level.
    Allah bless us all.

  30. ramiz ahmad says:

    i think all Muslim countries should take this step for our beloved Prophet.

  31. Adil says:

    ALLAH HO AKBAR great decision proud to be a a pakistani

  32. Umer Khitab says:

    Mobile version and Touch pad version are still working.They must put a ban on subdomains.

  33. Faizan says:

    Great Step. . it must be banned Permanently. .

  34. Aamir bhai These are still accessible:

    http://69.63.186.16

    https://facebook.com

    I have emailed complaint@pta.gov.pk about this.

    Please fellow Muslims, email complaint@pta.gov.pk about this.

  35. Jawad says:

    Sorry to say but Yes , F|_|ck the Facebook

    They dont follow their own Term of Service TOS , its not Freedom of speech , its called Freedom to Hurt !

  36. Shaheer says:

    i won’t return to fb ever again! go to hell facebook!

  37. Zia says:

    Great…. Pakistani govt ny bohat acha kia ha k block kr di ha facebook aur mery khyl se issy permanent block kr dna chahy.

  38. Rizwan says:

    face book go to hell.a very good step from our government.
    Thanks

  39. Naveedkamal says:

    also block porn sites. and keep it up

  40. Duryab says:

    go to hell facebook!

  41. Mano says:

    really nice step

  42. haris says:

    WWWOOOOWWWW !!!!
    WHT A DECISION TOOK BY PTA ..

    CHEERSSSsss !!

  43. d3sign3r says:

    FACEBOOK IS STILL ACCESSIBLE with a super stupid simple trick!! (doesn’t involve any proxies and works from within your normal browser)

    I will not declare it here, but its a shame for our *technical* guys in the gov and ISPs #FAIL

  44. waqas says:

    i have just sent an email to PTA for the working URL`s..

    one more thing, we just need to find some replacement of FAcebook so that peopple will not go again to FB…i belive this is the golden time…
    any suggession??

  45. Muhammad Haris says:

    Great Move…. Live with Dignity … Geo Lahore High Court…

    Thanks

  46. jony says:

    fb is still accessable through mobiles Dunya News.
    Zong and other mobile companies might have invested on Fb to display their adds so how can we expect deom them to block fb

  47. Mano says:

    yes it is still opening on my iphone

  48. Muslim says:

    To be honest my eyes are full.Man how on the earth they always insult out Holy Prophet :( ..GOV. we don’t need anything from you..loot us,kill us but please don’t ever ever ever allow anyone to insult our religion and our beloved Prophet and ALLAH

    • tabraiz anwer says:

      O. muslims authorities please block face book permanently.Now they again got courage to have competation to tear quran bc they know muslims will not do nothing. please do it immediatly

 

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