LHC Orders PTA to Ban Facebook in Pakistan

By Mehwish Khan | 19, May 2010 | 157 Comments

Lahore 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

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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Muhammad Zahid

Dear Sir

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

UR
Muhammad zahid
Muhammad Zahid

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
- ishtiaq ahmad
  
  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.

A for Apple

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!
- http://www.making-your-own-website.com Create Your First Website
  
  Good Idea. I like that! But will it really work?
  - A for Apple
    
    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.”
Najeeb

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!
Abdulrehman

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

They are hurting Muslims/
Alam

Good step.
Rehan

Muslims are alive….Allah-O-Akbar
http://www.making-your-own-website.com Nabeel @ Create Your First Website

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.
Ali

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

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 ?
- admin
  
  Only he can answer to your question…!
  - Tanveer Akhtar
    
    Amazing that Director Telecom Mudassar Hussain is worrying about facebook’s loss
Athar

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
  
  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
  
  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.
Atif Ashfaq

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
Haris Humayun

ALLAH HO AKBAR great decision proud to be a a pakistani
Haris Humayun

lets bycott more produst from there country
http://www.aazee.com aamir

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
Pingback: PakBits » Lahore High Court Orders PTA to Ban Facebook in Pakistan
Gaurdian

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.
- Ahmad
  
  @Gaurdian
  
  It is still very easy if you’ve access to internet through your mobile handset. Just open opera mini, login to m.facebook.com and then go to
  http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account
  
  Better late than never!
http://ranahammad.wordpress.com Rana Hammad

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/
lovely

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

Shamefully, Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, Sindh and Baluchistan doesn’t seems to care of Hazrat Muhammad (P.B.U.H) and prefer their dear Facebook!
- Shaheer
  
  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
  - Shaheer
    
    and by the bro, don’t divide the country!
- Ahsan Chaudhary
  
  what a lame coment i must say !!! stop being a racist !!
  - aLMOY
    
    @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
Silca

http://www.egblog.cz.cc/2010/05/19/fluctuation-in-facebook-rank-after-pakistan-banned-it/
Cyko

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” !
http://www.pakbits.com Pakbits

still working in Islamabad on neyatel network
Ozair

Shamefully other provinces didn’t bother to do this!
Only Punjab was awake enough for that!
http://www.formula1apex.com Gravity

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

That’s fantastic I am really happy!
eAhmadNowaz

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.
- admin
  
  Mobile companies are asked to block mentioned urls as well. Maybe in process..!
  - http://www.thedefendersoftruth.com Bint-e-Ibrahim
    
    Good – Masha Allah !!!!
    - Suhaib Malik
      
      Dude not only mobile companies. I tried to open m.facebook.com on my pc and its opening.
- Imran
  
  opera mini use proxy server from U.S so dats y it may b will remain open on opera mini.
Allah Akbar

You all have no sense of humor at all!
- Umar Bin Zahid
  
  Better you first elucidate your inclination first… we ain’t here for fun… our religion is not fun!!!
- Umar Bin Zahid
  
  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
Aayan

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.
http://www.thedefendersoftruth.com Bint-e-Ibrahim

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
http://www.symbians60soft.blogspot.com Bilal Baloch

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

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.
ramiz ahmad

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

ALLAH HO AKBAR great decision proud to be a a pakistani
Umer Khitab

Mobile version and Touch pad version are still working.They must put a ban on subdomains.
http://www.FaizanZahid.tk Faizan

Great Step. . it must be banned Permanently. .
http://www.making-your-own-website.com Nabeel @ Create Your First Website

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.
- Umar Bin Zahid
  
  They ain’t working now, Alhumdulillah
  - http://www.making-your-own-website.com Nabeel | Create Your First Website
    
    Yup Looks like PTA is doing us PROUD this time!
Jawad

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 !
Shaheer

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

Great…. Pakistani govt ny bohat acha kia ha k block kr di ha facebook aur mery khyl se issy permanent block kr dna chahy.
- Shaheer
  
  yes! it should be!
Rizwan

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

also block porn sites. and keep it up
- Ahsan Chaudhary
  
  awsum point man !!!!!!! the best suggestion !!
Duryab

go to hell facebook!
Mano

really nice step
haris

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

CHEERSSSsss !!
http://www.d3sign3r.com d3sign3r

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
waqas

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??
- Aayan
  
  here is the replacement of facebook.. its http://www.netwatan.com.. its pakistan’s first ever social networking website… promote it.. promote Pakistan…
Muhammad Haris

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

Thanks
- Ozair
  
  And SHAME on others, who didn’t initiated the step!
jony

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
- Umar Bin Zahid
  
  Zong Internet is also not opening FB
Mano

yes it is still opening on my iphone
Muslim

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
  
  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