【10.5.21 美媒】巴基斯坦向中国老大看齐 封了Facebook再封YouTube
First Facebook, then YouTube: Muslim anger, court order trigger Pakistan websites bans继“非死不可”之后，Youtube也被封禁：穆斯林的愤怒和法院判决引发巴基斯坦禁网风潮
来源：http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/20/pakistan-blocks-access-youtube-growing-internet-crackdown-sacrilegious-content/
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan blocked YouTube and many other Internet sites Thursday in a widening crackdown on online content deemed offensive to Islam, reflecting the secular government's sensitivities to an issue that has ignited protests in the Muslim country.
The move came a day after the government obeyed a court order to block Facebook over a page called "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!" that encourages users to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Most Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favorable ones, as blasphemous.
Supporters of an Islamist political party protested against Facebook in at least three cities in small and peaceful rallies. The government, which is unpopular among many Islamists for siding with the United States in the war against the Taliban and al-Qaida, is hoping that the website bans will lessen anger in the days ahead.
"We are ready to die protecting the honor of our beloved Prophet Muhammad," said Aysha Hameed, one of 1,000 female protesters in Multan city.
“我们为了保护敬爱的先知穆罕默德随时准备赴死。”Aysha Hameed说，她是Multan一千名女性抗议者中的一员。
Others — mostly members of the more secular, educated elite — accused the government of blocking freedom of expression and hurting small businesses that use Facebook for marketing. Many questioned need for the entire Facebook and YouTube sites to be blocked, instead of individual pages on them.
About 20 million of Pakistan's 180 million people are Internet users and social networking sites are among the most popular, especially among those younger than 25. Pakistan's Internet service providers' association said usage had dropped by about 25 percent since Wednesday.
The offending Facebook page encourages users to post images of the prophet on May 20 to protest threats made by a radical Muslim group against the creators of the American TV series "South Park" for depicting Muhammad in a bear suit during an episode earlier this year.
"Such malicious and insulting attacks hurt the sentiments of Muslims around the world and cannot be accepted under the garb of freedom of expression," Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said.
Pakistan and other Muslim nations saw large and sometimes violent protests in 2006 when a Danish newspaper published cartoons of Muhammad, and again in 2008 when they were reprinted. Later the same year, a suspected al-Qaida suicide bomber attacked the Danish Embassy in Islamabad, killing six people.
The telecommunications authority did not say what material on YouTube prompted it to block the site and more than 450 other unidentified pages, only citing "growing sacrilegious contents." Wahajus Siraj, the head of the Internet service providers' association, said the ban was because images of the Prophet Muhammad were also cropping up on the video-sharing site.
Blackberry service was halted for around 10 hours as efforts were made to stop mobile access to Facebook.
The government acted against Facebook and YouTube after it failed to persuade the websites to remove the offensive material, the telecommunications authority said. It said representatives from the two websites were welcome to contact the Pakistani government to resolve the dispute.
Facebook said the page was not a violation of its terms, but suggested it may be prepared to take it down.
"In cases like this, the approach is sometimes to restrict certain content from being shown in specific countries," it said in a statement.
In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Thursday that the United States respects Pakistan's legal efforts to protect citizens from offensive speech. He said many images on Facebook were deeply offensive to Muslims. But he said Pakistan must also be sure not to restrict the speech of those using the Internet.
Pakistan is governed by a secular political party that has little time for Islamic issues. But arguing against the court order would leave it open to accusations by its political opponents of siding with those blaspheming the prophet.
"The Islamist parties have been on the back foot for a while, this is a nice little issue for them to campaign about," said Cyril Almeida, a liberal media columnist. "There is no way you can have a rational debate in Pakistan about freedom of speech when one side is talking about blasphemy."
The five customers in the Dandy Net Cafe in Islamabad late Thursday afternoon agreed with the ban.
"We are very happy our government and our court has taken these actions," said Mohammad Aamir Chohan, a 28-year-old engineer. "I know blocking these sites is not a solution to the problem, but we have sent a message to the world not to hurt the feelings of Muslims."
Feelings were just as intense among those opposed to the ban.
"Sad and embarrassing day in the history of Pakistan," one user posted on the microblogging site Twitter.
Reba Shahid, the editor of Spider, a monthly print magazine about the Internet, said the government "might as well take away cell phones and shut off electricity, do the whole thing."
"You're stemming the flow of information, you're stemming my growth as an intellectual, you're stemming my access to the rest of the world. I might as well go home and sleep," she said.
Pakistan blocked access to YouTube for two days in 2008 because of what it said was unIslamic content. Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia and Morocco have all blocked access to YouTube in the past for various reasons, while China routinely bans Facebook and YouTube.
It remains to be seen how successful the government will be at keeping Internet users away from the blocked sites. Citizens often have little trouble working around a ban by using proxy servers and other means.
"What's common to Facebook and Lashkar-e-Taiba?" one user on Twitter wrote, referring to a Pakistani militant group that is banned but has an alleged front group that operates openly. "They are both banned in Pakistan, but Pakistanis can still find them if they want to."
“非死不可和Lashkar-e-Taiba有什么相同的？”一位twitter友提到一个巴基斯坦军事组织，这个军事组织被禁了但是仍公开活动。“它们在巴基斯坦都是被禁的，但是只要巴基斯坦人想找就还是能找到它们。”
After Facebook, Pakistan shuts down YouTube
来源：http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64J2I920100520?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29
The blockade came after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed Internet service providers to block access to social network site Facebook indefinitely on Wednesday because of an online competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad.
Any representation of the Prophet Mohammad is deemed un-Islamic and blasphemous by Muslims.
Wahaj-us-Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, an Internet service provider, said the PTA issued an order late on Wednesday seeking an "immediate" block on YouTube, which is owned Internet giant Google
"It was a serious instruction as they wanted us to do it quickly and let them know after that," he told Reuters.
YouTube was also blocked in the Muslim country in 2007 for about a year for what Pakistan called un-Islamic videos.
A Foreign Office spokesman condemned the publication of caricatures of the Muslim prophet on Facebook and urged countries to "address the issue" which he said was an "extremely sensitive and emotional matter for Muslims."
"Such malicious and insulting attacks hurt the sentiments of Muslims around the world and can not be accepted under the garb of freedom of expression," the spokesman, Abdul Basit, told a weekly briefing.
The publications of cartoons of the prophet in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked deadly protests in Muslim countries. About 50 people were killed during violent protests in Muslim countries in 2006 over the cartoons, five of them in Pakistan.
Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on the Danish Embassy in Islamabad in 2008, killing six people, saying it was in revenge for publication of the caricatures.
BLACKBERRY SERVICES
PTA spokesman Khurram Ali Mehran said the action to block YouTube was taken after the authority determined that content considered blasphemous by devout Muslims was being posted on the website.
"Before shutting down (YouTube), we did try just to block particular URLs or links, and access to 450 links on the Internet were stopped, but the blasphemous content kept appearing so we ordered a total shut down," he said.
The PTA issued a statement on Thursday saying, it would "welcome the concerned authorities of Facebook and YouTube to contact the PTA for resolving the issue at the earliest which ensures religious harmony and respect."
Some other websites, including Wikipedia and Flickr, have been inaccessible in Pakistan since Wednesday night. But the authority's spokesman said those sites had been blocked for technical reasons and no orders had been issued against them.
Siraj of Nayatel said the blocking of the two sites would cut up to a quarter of total Internet traffic in Pakistan.
After the PTA's directives against Facebook and YouTube, Pakistani mobile companies blocked all Blackberry services on Wednesday night but restored services used by non-corporate users later on Thursday.
The Obama administration has been critical of moves by other countries, including China, to impose Internet restrictions but U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley was cautious over Pakistan's latest moves, saying it was a "challenging issue."
"We are deeply concerned about any deliberate attempt to offend Muslims or members of any other religious groups. We do not condone offensive speech that can incite violence or hatred," Crowley told reporters in Washington.
However, Crowley added that Pakistan must ensure that in its actions, it did not restrict freedom of speech to the millions in that country who were connected to the Internet.
"Pakistan, as it works through these issues, has to try to find that difficult balance," said Crowley, adding that the issue was now a legal matter between Facebook and Pakistan's authorities.
(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony and Faisal Aziz in Karachi and Sue Pleming in Washington; editing by Chris Allbritton and Todd Eastham) 巴基斯坦本就够动荡的了，再来个挑衅宗教的视频，嘿嘿，你说统治者会怎么选择。肯定不愿意因为这再爆几个炸弹吧 祝愿巴基斯坦能国治民安。 才封啊！
要赶快跟进。 美国自己不也封过吗 胡萝卜Q10)Q41) 为了保护敬爱的先知穆罕默德随时准备赴死Q41) 宗教问题可不好解决 绝对不好解决
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