This is going to hurt those who argue that YouTube ban is hindering their way to access educational videos available on the website.
Stats show that there might be a slight number of users who use YouTube for educational videos (again: just a small fraction) but majority of Pakistanis looked for Indian songs on YouTube, before and during the ban.
Here are the search trends for YouTube during 2013 for Pakistan specific Audience:
Clearly the internet audience from Pakistan is searching for songs, songs, songs and Indian Songs. These trends highlight that YouTube was a good medium to view Songs with High Definition quality videos.
Not to mention, YouTube is banned in Pakistan for around a year now. Which means people are accessing the website through proxy channels to watch the songs.
Interestingly, these trends were no different in year 2012. Have a look:
This reveals the general behaviour and taste of Pakistani users, who have access to Internet but are unable to make its productive use.
Songs, movies and other recreational activities is what we tend to do a lot over internet. Authorities concerned, internet activists, USF, PASHA, PSEB, PTA and others should take necessary measures to increase internet awareness in the country.
Its about time that we should think beyond enabling the population and should start working on effective and positive usage of Internet.
Via
You’re never going to see any productive use of the internet if you just keep on baning stuff senselessly without any grounds whatsoever.
There is absolutely zero transparency or accountability over what gets banned/censored and for what reasons.
The ISPs, Government and the Authority just use religion as a cover for their own interests.
I do agree with you, the whole (banning) process is shady. However, banning things isn’t the root cause of unproductive usage of Internet. There is a lot more attached to it.
As I mentioned in the post, authorities concerned should take necessary awareness measure to change the behaviors.
I completely agree on the lack of proper education part. But from what I believe, probably the best way to highlight productive usage of the internet is by actually showing how it can benefit your life and career.
A lot of “entrepreneurs” I know are hesitant about the local internet situation because of the needless restrictions placed here (our laws against geo-indexing and mapping for example) or the blanket censorship policies (a lot of up and coming artists, directors etc use the web to promote their work and not having access to YouTube is seriously hampering that).
Banning something on the internet is the most stupid solution to any problem as you and I both know there are always numerous ways around the blocks. If we need to access something, there are probably a million ways to do that.
We should be discouraging misuse by educating the people, not by restraining them because that almost always never works.
For instance, I use YouTube mostly for (technology) news, gaming videos, movie trailers and occasionally for some fun (I prefer VEVO for my actual music needs because its much simpler to use and you only get “official” stuff in HD). That still doesn’t mean its wrong if people use it for music because it sure beats downloading everything to your computer.
I think we need to encourage kids to use online tools like YouTube and Wikipedia at an early school level so they develop the proper skills and mindset to make more productive use of technology.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but in 2013 all YouTube visits from Pakistan were done through proxies, which means spoofing YouTube into thinking the user is from another country. Doesn’t that make those results for Pakistan invalid?
It is a very valid point and I was thinking the same. There is definitely something wrong with these statistics.
these stats are from youtube and if you think proxy websites can bypass google’s system for profiling users then you are too innocent
Oh really??? Try this experiment:
1. find a video that is available only in some market, like music video that is limited to (for example) U.S.
2. try to access the video using a proxy outside that country, like proxy is Europe. you will fail.
3. try to access the video using a proxy in the U.S.. it will work.
So do you really think Google is SO STUPID that it denies you access from outside the country, and then allows you access from inside a country but knowing you are really sitting outside???
Believe me, there are many ways to proxy without Google finding out your real location. I know it because that’s how I do it, not by using a third-party proxy site.
1. find a video that is available only in some market, like music video that is limited to (for example) U.S.
2. try to access the video using a proxy outside that country, like proxy is Europe. you will fail. (because video is available ONLY for US)
3. try to access the video using a proxy in the U.S.. it will work. (because video is for US it will work on US proxy)
what are you trying to say??
Did you even read the comment I replied to? Imran implied that even if you use a proxy in the US, Google can figure out that you are realliy sitting in Pakistan. Read his comment carefully.
I said, NO. Depending on the proxy & how it is set up, it’s possible that Google will never find out that you are even using a proxy. I know this because I DO THIS.
Change your DNS to 8.8.8.8 and access https://youtube.com preferably open this in Firefox, it will open, you may need to refresh the video page a few times – You will be able to access Youtube without using Proxy
I do agree with the proxy Youtube won’t be able to track you down with the IP address; by the way they still can track you down if you are logged in with any of the Google service (Though this shouldn’t be the part of their Statistics)
I use a separate browser for Youtube with proxy, so I avoid the hassle of reloading several times to view a video. Also keeps my other cookies, sessions infos separate.
Imran bro.
You are the one too innocent. Because “proxy websites CAN bypass any filter. (atleast most of them)
Here is the thing.
1) I am accessing the website/server that is in the USA. This website is actually a proxy.
2)That website/server/proxy connects me through to the banned content OR the content which is only available to USA’s people eg HULU or in our case YouTube.
3) So, Although i am connecting to youtube (or banned website) its actually is through proxy and that why its possible that pings will be too high and speed will be slow through proxy (coz third party is involved).
.
Shahid Saleem explained it very well but i think Ali8307 is just a retard.
You really dont have any idea what you are saying, its too easy to mask your location, you can not just pass a statement that one can not fool a GIANT like google.
Wow. Dude get your knowledge straight rather than beating about the bush and misguiding people. this goes to that guy who wrote this post as well.
These stats are totally wrong as whole of the traffic which is bypassed through proxy represent that country’s host of which proxy server is used to bypass it.
I have no idea from where these people get this kind of lame stuff.
Stop misguiding people. will you?
Ahmm.. For everyone that says these stats are wrong.
Are You Mad ?..
Did you even tried to take a look at the stats.These are from GOOGLE b*stard not from youtube.
These searches are made on google not your f*cking youtube.Go Get Some Life.
Sorry for bad english :p
If you had invested more time in your personality development and education instead of the abusive language, you would have known that what you are saying is crap. Now you tell me that If I’m in Pakistan and browsing the internet through a proxy based in France, how will Google or Youtube know that I’m in Pakistan and not in France? Black magic or any other divine power? Moreover in case you don’t know, Google is owned by Youtube too.
For you my friend. I have nothing to say. How do you get a proxy ? By searching on google Obviously. and these results are by people who search on google about proxies to open youtube and of course you are wrong google is not owned by youtube. Its the other way around :/ Youtube is owned by google.
+Infinity.
You can still access YouTube via HTTPS through Firefox. Its the videos which don’t load on YouTube. Even though that traffic is encrypted, the video is somehow being rendered unable to be played. Though some users had been lucky with access to YouTube just fine.
Exactly you are correct. It actually works for me in Chrome sometimes (not 100%, maybe 40% of the time) when I am logged into Google (maybe something special with my cookies) but with the same browser and same video, trying to access it in incognito mode (without my login cookies) it shows the page but does not load the video.
In general the success ratio is so low that I just use my proxy.
Not necessarily. YouTube still partially worked for a lot people directly though videos don’t always play. Since these are search statistics and not actually tracking playcounts or click throughs, the data is valid.
Of course the above charts don’t show actual volume change between 2012 and 2013 so its hard to tell if there is a significant drop in traffic.
Oh WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
I can correct you.And with pleasure. :)
These stats are from GOOGLE not from youtube.So this means these searches are made on GOOGLE and not on youtube.These Stats are correct.
Even if the ratio of people using YouTube for education/help/information vs for entertainment is 1:10000, no one gives the right to the government to block access to information.
Secondly, promoting positive usage of Internet is very subjective term. What’s positive? I watch College Humor and it’s positive to me because it helps me relax…or perhaps a bollywood song because I am a blooody human and YES I love entertainment.
People will do what they want to do…the world is like that…laws are there to protect the people and right now people are accessing YouTube through unsafe proxies which puts them at even bigger risk of data leaks/private information loss. The other day I was using proxy to access YouTube and it accidentally logged me in to someone else’s account. What the government doesn’t realize is that to appease the masses they are doing damage to a chunk of others.
Saad two things,
1 – I am not advocating ban coz of song searches
2 – one positive trend, at least, could have given an encouraging moral boost.
Again, we are stuck on the definition of ‘positive’. I think searching songs is a very positive use of Internet for people who manage on $10 a day. There is always a different way to look at things.
So, listening songs of “Ashiqui 2” or whatever makes you immoral.
Woopti doo. we have an answer.
Govt dont think positive. because positive thinkers do not apply for a Govt job. this is a bad luck for us. someone please tell them, youtube has a lot a lot to learn except songs. by the way song are also not bad.
With all due respect, these statistics mean nothing to me. If I want to do something productive with my life, thats y prerogative and nobody else’s. Stereotyping simply because the majority likes to search for the retarded item numbers is completely unjustified.
I run a business entirely via internet. And alhamdolilah quite successfully too. Those who want to do something with their lives will find ways to keep themselves productive. Those who aren’t, won’t.
this leaves me to think whats all this about banning youtube when people can access it infact I think when you restrict something on internet people tend to use it more, I have formulated some of the possible solutions for this whole melodrama have a read here http://ehmedk.blogspot.com/2013/08/is-youtube-really-blocked-in-pakistan.html
How its is supposed to Show in Stats While People Using Secured SSL based Proxy servers and PPTP Secured VPN ..Which Ensures Online Anonymity of the User?
On some ISP in Pakistan, if you are not using ISP DNS server (i.e, you use 8.8.8.8 or OpenDNS), you can visit Youtube on https instead of http. Sometimes the video will load, sometimes it won’t. But the page will load. And from that, Youtube knows what you searched for or tried to view.
Aamir bhai, except for the second last search item (which explicitly mentions India in the search string), the rest of the search strings don’t have any keyword — India, Bollywood, etc. — that could suggest that people were searching for Indian songs. What makes you think that when people search for songs, they mean Indian songs? With regards, AnonCoward.
Aamir bhai, May I humbly request you to answer my question on this forum.
You know i just have a question for ammir attaa sahab.
How is searching for songs (at whatever ratio) is bad thing? Should we ban all the music in Pakistan? Stone all singers to death?
I remember when i was little people use to own these decks and those giant speakers and guess what mostly Indian songs used to play on them.
So, why this is an issue now?
Right now Inidan movies are having a full house in Pakistani’s cinemas better than Hollywood and Pakistan’s own movies.
PTCL can ban each and every site but according to PTA’ instructionzzz
i suggest u to complaint agains proxy-sites,softwares to PTA
it’s Pakistanis who use utube but against utube on fb,twitter postzzz
when talk with people again they are against utube
but when alone, using net, they prefer to use utube….
,
i think they should use utube’ alternative sites: here some suggestion
1. tune.pk
2. dailymotion.com
3. vidpk.com
4. playwire.com
5. zemtv.com
6. vimeo.com
7. vube.com
and many others…. and these sites of good ranking, compatible to utube
What a stupid article. Must be such a pious person labeling people desperate for some entertainment as the non pious time wasters
I would like to second Aamir’s point of view in this regard. The major problem in our country is the lack of awareness regarding the use of internet. Old generation had no clue whatsoever about using the internet for productivity and therefore they could not guide their siblings about proper usage of internet.
But I guess there is something more to it too. The search trends that Aamir has shown clearly indicate that our nation is more interested in watching Indian songs and movies rather than doing something productive. Our new generation kids have grown up watching Indian Saas Bahu dramas in the home, hearing news about Indian actors and actresses in the entertainment section of the news on every news channel, gossiping about upcoming Indian movies and discussing life events of Indian actors and actresses. How and why you expect something productive from these guys in this situation? Do you have one good reason to expect any productivity from our new generation? The media has been paid very handsomely to achieve this goal and they have fairly done their job.
You might have seen the video of a TV show in which an anchor went to some English Medium schools and universities and asked the kids a question, “Who wrote the national anthem of Pakistan?” and by the answers of the college level students I was stunned and shocked. 90 % of them had no clue about the question and some guys and girls who answered the question was totally unaware of the answer.
We have got independence from Britain but we could never made our selves free from the effects of Indian culture and media upon us. They have marked their targets very clearly and working very positively to achieve them and the search trends are the open proof of their success.
At the end I can only pray that Long live Pakistan and may our people realize where we are heading and amend their ways to become a successful nation in my lifetime Ameen.
Regards Ehtisham Safdar. An ordinary Pakistani.
I am totally agree with you… and 2nd thing is that youtube only have songs for us “Pakistani’s” … ye urdu me hoty hn na issi liay… wrna youtube pr urdu me learning material na hony k braabr hy… !!!
hr cheez to english me hy!… hahaha
How is asking random bullsh!t general knowledge questions and expect that everyone know about them proves our loyalty to Pakistan?? And how is knowing the fact that Hafeez Jalandhri wrote our national anthem going to help me in life?? And how is knowing about katrina kaif going to destroy Pakistan. This BS topi dram of cultral war is bullsh!t. You don’t get to decide what I or anyone who is not related to you in anyway should watch or do as long as it is not affecting.
Mr. Moz first of all you should mind your language while talking to any brother of yours. Being a Muslim all of us are brothers. So I spare your rudeness in this regard. Secondly the question that who wrote the national anthem of Pakistan is not a random general knowledge question it is a question we must know as it is the history of our country. If I ask you who was the first president of USA then it is a general knowledge question.
Knowing the history of your country will always will help you whenever you get a chance to represent your country. I guess you have not got any chance like this that is why you asked me this.
I don’t want to decide what you should watch. Me and Aamir just presented a point of view that majority of Pakistani people are watching Indian movies and songs for entertainment because of lack of awareness regarding doing productive work on internet and secondly and most importantly due to lack of good entertainment from our own channels. I hope I made my point clear to you.
Tell me, do you spend any Rupees you earn for entertainment? Do you eat junk food/drink soft drinks ever? Do you drive somewhere just for fun, and not for a purpose like work, shopping for necessities, visiting family, etc?
If so, you accept that not everything you do offline is for pure efficiency and your betterment. And by reasoning, why should everything you do online be any different?
Why are you wearing pants and shirt in your picture Ehtisham? You have failed to free yourself from the British mindset that invaded our land 2 centuries ago. Please, go buy shalwar kameez.
Sir Ammar Malik, does wearing a jeans and a T-shirt represent my ideology and thinking about Pakistan? Does it represent that I am under the influence of Britain and does wearing a Shalwar Kameez and not knowing any thing about my country gives me the certificate of being loyal to the country?
NO, it surely does not mean all that. What I wanted to say is that many of us are still following the culture of Indian and West blindly. This is clearly depicted by the behavior of our young generation. Wearing pent shirt is not the problem, wearing the clothes that reveals your body is the problem. Islam did not ask us to wear shalwar kameez or pent shirt it just asked us to wear anything that can cover the “Sattar”. Today the boys wear low back jeans from which you can see their underwears and when these guys some how come to offer prayers they get naked while doing the “Sajdah”. When you go out in the market for shopping you see the girls wearing cloths that reveals their body. This creates problem and this is what forbidden in Islam. Wearing a pent shirt is not forbidden. In the same way using internet for entertainment is not bad but using it solely for so called entertainment (indian songs) is I guess a bad habit. I hope I have made my point clearer to you if not then you may continue the discussion.
So you’re denying that the pant shirt you wear is because of influence from the west?
Yeah I guess so :).
Hmmm. So watching a full length Indian movie on a 100 ft screen in Pakistani cinema is perfectly Ok. Watching an Indian song on 17 inch screen through YouTube is destructive. Nice argument !
Aoa, Sir Salim Khan I totally agree to your point and I did not say that watching an Indian movie in the cinema makes it a good thing and watching the same thing on your computer is not good. You know what I would like to share something with you.
On this weekend i.e. on 25th Aug I went to watch a Pakistani Movie called “Main Hoon Shahid Afridi”. The movie lived to my expectations and everything about the movie was good enough as compared to the other Pakistani movies made in the recent past. I guess it is the first ever Pakistani movie which revolves around sports and being made on a Sports Person and Shahid Afridi gets the honor of first ever Pakistani player who has a movie named after him.
I was hoping that I wont be able to get the tickets easily for the show because I thought people love Shahid Afridi and they will definitely come to watch this movie as he is a very big crowd puller at least in cricket stadium. But to my astonishment there was no line for the tickets and when I reached in the hall more than half of it was empty. Had it been any stupid indian movie then it would be a house full. The point is that our people are not ready to watch our own stuff. Why is that so? Isn’t it due to the media war that has been carried on for so many years by our enemies?
Before this I thought that if Pakistani channels or Pakistani cinema produces good quality stuff then people would love to see it but my experience of the Movie “Main Hoon Shahid Afridi” proved me totally wrong and it proved that our minds have been captured totally by Indian media and our people are more interested to know what is happening in Saif and Kareena Kapoor’s life rather than knowing stuff about our own country.
May ALLAH protect our country and my fellow men from this war. Ameen.
I’m confused! Is this post related to proxy or searching indian content..
What do you expect from Pakistani citizens. When you see most of the media promoting Indian BS in terms of movie trailers, gossips and full length Indian movies for which they receive heavy sums of money, they will keep doing mass hypnosis until the Pakistanis forget who they really are and what was the core reason Pakistan was created for.
actually these fucking pakistani are sick and dip into foolish of indian sexy stuff. pakistani are crying oh oh oh PTI we can’t live without utube, please please indian song are our lifes , save our lifes and open youtube, oh oh we will die please open it.
It’s actually “lives”, not “lifes”.
You can see still people searching for “unblock youtube” so the results are with you. Question is if people want to unblock than why its still block?
Nice use of youtube my dear made in bollywood friends
Sweetie, you should be the last one to talk about bans. Thanks to you, we have got ourselves into one fine mess.
Thanks God we use YouTube only for Education purpose…
Thanks God we use YouTube only for Education purpose…
Thanks God we use YouTube only for Education purpose…
Thanks God we use YouTube only for Education purpose…
Thanks God we use YouTube only for Education purpose…
I use youtube for khanacademy to watch lectures on Calculus and microeconomics so you really cant blame the whole population for using youtube for entertainment purposes which actually it is meant for. Listening to indian songs is not a blasphemy or something. Its entertainment.
You know what ? We should just make Pakistan into a communist state. I mean what’s the purpose of choice if your going to force people to do “positive” things. IF I WANT TO LISTEN TO INDIAN SONGS – I SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO. Who the hell are you or anyone to stop me >