In an ongoing process, Internet Service Providers have been blocking blasphemous websites at URL and IP levels as they are directed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.
Just today, ISPs were handed over a list of 550 URLs to be immediately blocked on their networks. These URLs include youtube videos, Facebook groups, fan pages, Google/Bing/Yahoo Search queries, my space communities, couple of Wikipedia articles, couple of dozen blogs and other websites.
This list is likely to re-new everyday, as PTA is continuously monitoring the web for blasphemous content.
ISPs on one hand are complaining about the over head caused due to this practice; while at the same time they fear network latency due to high number of filters on their routers.
On other hands PTA, when asked it said, is following the directive from Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom.
ISPs say their routers have reached the bread limit for filtering the content, “any further burden will get these routers chocked”, said one official while speaking with us.
Moreover, Facebook’s URLs are usually relative (meaning that you don’t get single ultimate URL of one webpage due to its addressing structure) hence are impossible to block.
ISPs want PTA to filter content at centralized and above ISP level so that their networks are not impacted with the blocking procedures.
We know that PTA is already considering filtering data at centralized and country level, but this solution may take some time to get implemented. Meanwhile, ISPs will have to suffer – looks, it’s not far now that ISPs will start protesting over the issue.
It is evident now that Government is not left with much time to devise a plan and ultimately the regulations, concurred by common internet user, ISPs, Civil Society, Ethnic Groups, Minorities, to tackle this new cyber-crisis.
Why don’t they understand, the can’t regulate the internet. Internet is supposed to be censor free. Otherwise we would be no better than the Middle East or China or Taliban.
What can I say is only : InnaLillah wa Inna Alaih-e-RajeWoon.
hummmm…. boom boom :) we have a crisis … lets see how this one ends…
It is good for Muslims who Love Hazrat Muhammd Salalaho alehe wasallam. Iran Also did this it should be system that filter every blasphemous content having web site. Thanks PTA.
PTA zinda bad
If they have power then why they are Vexing other people by blocking these websites? Why not they block pornographic websites that are illegal in Islam? These are all fraud by the Pakistani people
i cant agree with u more brother ..
Maybe if you prepared a list of pornographic websites for them to block…
Its a thought process, you guys should be glad that courts have the audacity to put a ban on such elements. I won’t argue on negative aspects of the ban, but look at the brighter side, which is the morality at larger scale. I hope you get my drift!
What I can’t understand is, what is the use of blocking this content in PAKISTAN?
People here won’t bother to visit those pages, so whats the use of blocking them and causing unnecessary trouble?
Well, I am also facing slow internet speed and using PTCL Broadband Pakistan. Yet we’ve another crisis which may be known as INTERNET LOAD SHEDDING :-D. Internet is for all, banning sites may cause loss of many peoples in country. So PTA needs a vast management and thinking sources to make internet SCAM Free not by banning sites.
Regards,
Rizwan Yaqoob
They should understand that internet is not a f**king property of ANYONE … not even USA or INDIA or Israel.
kamaal hia …@ all those who are saying its “crises” or may be am so dumb that i am not getting it.
if authority is regulating something , this is over head ?
Every country has 100% control on their communication including INTERNET. then why not we ?
i strongly agree with PTA (infect i believe its first time PTA is going to do something GOOD) else mostly what they do everybody knows .
But we have to accept good is good.
And what ISPs are saying..again a strange thing …I mean how many isps we have left in pakistan ? Mostly they are all DSL providers , i dont know a single person using dialup in my Group of friends.And Dsl too is provided by a low number of ISPs . and whats a big deal yaar , they are all using Proxy, they just have to filter given urls on proxy and thts it done..Why they are using Routers to filter “urls” :) i wish some juniper or cisco expert might help us that “urls” are being filtered by routers …if they say IP i agree but they are filtering “urls” with the help of “Routers….lolzzzzzzzzzz” :)
Think wise guys , and yes they should do more .they should block all porn stuff, should block all those sites who are against “humanity” ..there are thousands of urls on internet which must be blocked in every country in every religion as they are against humanity..
We should have a safe internet …
And the brother oper saying net slow ho gaya hia :P
bhia….jo sites band nia hain…woh band ho jaeen gi tua u will be safe 80% from malwares and this will help you to have good Internet , for your pc , for your data and for “all of us” :)
this long speech is to admit that PTA is doing a very GOOD job and for my knowledge its FIRST time they are doing something really Good .so please appreciate them rather then just saying without thinking and knowing ..
waslam
Which countries are filtering/regulating the internet?
Do you honestly believe that? I mean if the internet is as regulated as you say worldwide then why is there piracy? Why every vital piece of information still leaks out and worst of all why is there any malware online?
No country in a sane mind censors internet because its against the basic human rights. And those that do are frowned upon by the world, like China, Iran or some other in the middle east.
As for filtering concerns, it doesn’t matter if you are filtering on routers or via proxy servers; the bottom line is that speed would be degraded because you would have to do thousands of comparisons against every request. A similar filtering process already caused problems on all.social media sites recently for users who were on the PTCL network.
Besides only a complete idiot would decide to filter blasphemous content in Pakistan. Who the f**k in Pakistan would want to visit these sites/pages anyways?
Instead our courts should focus their resources on other cases that actually do matter. Our government should try to get this country in a better condition and PTA should get its head out of its ass and put the damn 3G/4G licenses on auction already; or try to improve our infrastructure by upgrading all the major cities to Fiber. That’s a much better way to help the country.
what is “regulation on internet” ? or what it should be ? Its our country , so anything which is against “Pakistan” Should be blocked” against our religion should be blocked.
this is very strange quote that who will visit ….in other words we are recalling mushafar’s laws that if gals want to do “anything” on their will nobody will ask them..and if its by force then police will take action…
Think wide dude!
And no internet slows down..i am in ISP field since last 10 years…if you say its very difficult process then let me have it on seat and its matter of 10 minutes…and not for me ..for any xyz NOC can do it easily.
computer is very organized machine ,and nothing works here without “human permission”.
And yes i believe every country blocks /filters what they want..
Name a country and i will give you a proof if you need to..
We are a Free country and we have right to block anything coming to our country …say someone has website who has “changed version of Quran” and they are spreading it among People to get them doubted for Quran , then will you say this shouldn’t be blocked as who will go their site ?
Do you know thousands of “Muslims” in your country dont know even how to recite Kalma ?
and wasting time on facebook and other similar things is not going to give our country anything but if we produce programmers , network engineers , designers to international Level then it would be something for “IT” .
i realy am so sad to see thoughts of our educated pakistan ….
Maybe that’s because the “Educated” do see the flip-side of this issue. Giving the government an open hand to block the internet means they would block anything “they” find offensive (that includes stuff offensive to the Government).
I’m not a guy who gets into politics, hell I hardly know about that, but according to me, Musharaf was the best leader the country ever got. Sure no one is perfect but he got us out of a financial crisis, and set our IT industry up. Everyone before and after him are just jackasses who can’t even sort out there own problems.
And yeah about your sexist comment on Girls, It really didn’t surprise me given your views on everything else. If a girl want’s to do “anything” then its her choice. You have no say or right in that matter. God gave us a free will for some reason you know. And that is to decide between right and wrong ourself and not being forced by someone do to do something. If we really had to be forced by someone else to do anything, he wouldn’t have given us a free will at the first place. We can tell others about the difference between right and wrong, but we can’t force a decision on them. We have a free right to choose anything we want, by basic human rights, by law and by religion.
And finally, about your thoughts on no the internet wouldn’t slow down, well do you have a theory to back that up, since you must know the technical details about that being in the ISP business and all.
It really takes common sense to figure out that you would have to monitor every request and check it against a list of thousands of pages before completing it. Now please don’t insult me by saying that there is no difference between thousands of comparison operations and no operation at all. If you still think it has no affect than please cite some references to back up that claim. Maybe I was the one wasted all my life by believing in the wrong facts.
Oh and by the way, spend some time online before determining which sites are a waste of time and which aren’t.
Please do not support tyranny. The criminal justice system is taking care of the rest. But his case is indefensible. So his lawyer is just trying to pass as much time as possible.
Islam is not sexist. Allah’s will is better than free will. The French for example have really crossed all limits, even by American standards. The reason of Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger’s fall from grace may be examined.
Run any search on Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and “Innocence of Muslim” will turn up in the list of suggested videos. Pretty obnoxious, would’nt you agree?
Google might consider setting up “Youtube Pakistan”, to improve their income stream, and at the same time give us an oppertunity to remember them in our prayers.
Please do not support tyranny. The criminal justice system is taking care of the rest. But his case is indefensible. So his lawyer is just trying to pass as much time as possible.
Islam is not sexist. Allah’s will is better than free will. The French for example have really crossed all limits, even by American standards. The reason of Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger’s fall from grace may be examined.
Run any search on Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and “Innocence of Muslim” will turn up in the list of suggested videos. Pretty obnoxious, would’nt you agree?
Google might consider setting up “Youtube Pakistan”, to improve their income stream, and at the same time give us an oppertunity to remember them in our prayers.
Please do not support tyranny. The criminal justice system is taking care of the rest. But his case is indefensible. So his lawyer is just trying to pass as much time as possible.
Islam is not sexist. Allah’s will is better than free will. The French for example have really crossed all limits, even by American standards. The reason of Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger’s fall from grace may be examined.
Run any search on Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and “Innocence of Muslim” will turn up in the list of suggested videos. Pretty obnoxious, would’nt you agree?
Google might consider setting up “Youtube Pakistan”, to improve their income stream, and at the same time give us an oppertunity to remember them in our prayers.
Please do not support tyranny. The criminal justice system is taking care of the rest. But his case is indefensible. So his lawyer is just trying to pass as much time as possible.
Islam is not sexist. Allah’s will is better than free will. The French for example have really crossed all limits, even by American standards. The reason of Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger’s fall from grace may be examined.
Run any search on Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and “Innocence of Muslim” will turn up in the list of suggested videos. Pretty obnoxious, would’nt you agree?
Google might consider setting up “Youtube Pakistan”, to improve their income stream, and at the same time give us an oppertunity to remember them in our prayers.
Please do not support tyranny. The criminal justice system is taking care of the rest. But his case is indefensible. So his lawyer is just trying to pass as much time as possible.
Islam is not sexist. Allah’s will is better than free will. The French for example have really crossed all limits, even by American standards. The reason of Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger’s fall from grace may be examined.
Run any search on Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and “Innocence of Muslim” will turn up in the list of suggested videos. Pretty obnoxious, would’nt you agree?
Google might consider setting up “Youtube Pakistan”, to improve their income stream, and at the same time give us an oppertunity to remember them in our prayers.
Great Job by PTA !