Pakistan lifts 3-year ban on YouTube, allows local version

Three years later, Google, owing to reclaim its lost market, has launched a new version that gives the Pakistani Government, the authority to remove content that it considers unfit for the country.

The report added that YouTube will launch a localized version of the site which will allow the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to remove content it finds offensive.

From now on, users in Pakistan will be directed to an Urdu-language version of the YouTube video sharing website at youtube.com.pk, which will feature videos trending in the country.

The PTA official stated that the authorities along with the assistance of Information Ministry have finalized all the needed arrangements and have unblocked the application for the users in Pakistan, private news channel reported.

Pakistan’s government on Monday ordered the country’s telecom regulator to lift a ban on YouTube within 48 hours, a senior Pakistani official told the Financial Times. The government had blocked YouTube in Pakistan on September 17, 2012, after receiving information about continuing access to a contentious blasphemous video created and uploaded on YouTube. But a spokesperson for YouTube has assured that state requests for the removal of content would not be granted without review and a valid justification.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd posted on its Facebook page on Monday: “Welcome Back YouTube”.

Last week, Google announced that it had launched localised versions in Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, paving the way for the website to be unblocked in Pakistan.

The recreational-made video triggered widespread demonstrations because of its mocking portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad and was condemned in the Muslim world.

“The agreement should be made public because that is how we can know what kind of material has been restricted and what kind of content will be restricted in the future”, she said.