YouTube Blocked In Pakistan 299
kokoko1 submits this snippet from The Telegraph, which reports that Facebook isn't alone — now YouTube, too, is being censored in Pakistan. "The blocking of YouTube comes a day after a Pakistani court blocked Facebook amid a growing row over a competition on the social networking website to design cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad." Update: 05/20 18:58 GMT by T : According to an anonymous reader, Wikipedia and Flickr are out, too.
Update: 05/21 12:11 GMT by KD : And now add Twitter to the blocked list. This post claims that more than 1,000 sites are being blocked in Pakistan.
Update: 05/21 12:11 GMT by KD : And now add Twitter to the blocked list. This post claims that more than 1,000 sites are being blocked in Pakistan.
Re:smells like dissent (Score:5, Informative)
Apparently Twitter supports Unicode, which opens a whole range of new possibilities ;-)
http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2009/01/14/how-to-insert-graphics-in-twitter-messages/ [johndcook.com]
flcikr out, wikipedia still working (Score:2, Informative)
Re:They don't even understand the history (Score:5, Informative)
Except that this isn't a principle that started when the religion was founded, the whole anti-depiction thing only started about 2 or 3 hundred years ago. The religion itself is older, and has depictions of Muhammed.
Re:The problem (Score:4, Informative)
Re:In related news... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:They don't even understand the history (Score:3, Informative)
That happens in Christian churches *now*, never mind "old-timer" Protestants. Look at the Free Presbyterians - wearing a crucifix necklace would be considered idolatry. Do bear in mind that they make Wahabbi Muslims look like the very picture of tolerance and acceptance, though.
Re:Maybe... (Score:3, Informative)
It's still your fault. The politicians are ultimately elected by the people, unless the vote is completely rigged (which there's no evidence of in any western country). If the people are too stupid to vote for better politicians, and keep electing the crappy ones, it's their own fault. Sure, a minority of the people (like you in Aus and me in the USA) might complain, but we're not enough to overcome the hordes of morons who vote. So while it may not be "your" fault individually, it IS "your" fault collectively that your country's government is fucked up. (This is one of the many cases where I wish English had different words for singular and plural "you".)
As for government forces shooting at civilians, we don't have that problem in the USA. If they start doing that outside liberal anti-gun cities like NYC, Chicago and Boston, the civilians will be shooting back. The amount of firepower owned by the citizens in this country is staggering. Unlike in Australia, we never allowed our government to take away our guns, so if things ever get too bad, we can always fall back to the ammo box.
Re:flcikr out, wikipedia still working (Score:1, Informative)
Just confirming that Flickr is indeed blocked. Trying to access the site gives a "This Site is Restricted" msg. Wikipedia on the other hand seems to be working just fine.
Gosh, Its opening just fine for me in Pakistan. What ISP are you using. Says something like this on the colorful page. * 5,557 uploads in the last minute * 6,292 things tagged with fresco * 2.6 million things geotagged this month * Take the tour Explore Flickr Blog, the World Map, Camera Finder or interesting uploads from the last 7 days.
Re:Mohammed (Score:4, Informative)
You do know that followers of Islam are not supposed to eat any port products right?
Woosh, that was part of the joke. Jews aren't supposed to eat pork either, but go to any buffet in Vegas and try counting all the people eating bacon and wearing yamakas. And Muslims are allowed to eat pork if no other food is available anyway (cite: The Quran 2:173). Technically, Christians are not supposed to eat pork either:
Fortunately, I'm a Pastafarian [venganza.org], so I can eat wtf I want. And while I won't get 72 virgins, there is a beer volcano and a stripper factory in our heaven.
Re:They don't even understand the history (Score:2, Informative)
http://zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/islamic_mo_full/ [zombietime.com]
Re:Refreshing (Score:3, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_libel_laws [wikipedia.org]
http://www.foxbghsuit.com/nyt060199.htm [foxbghsuit.com]
Last but not least, the law itself:
http://law.justia.com/texas/codes/cp/004.00.000096.00.html [justia.com]
Re:smells like dissent (Score:4, Informative)
I realize that's the Christian interpretation. It's certainly not the Islamic interpretation [wikipedia.org], as far as I can tell.