Pakistan blocks Twitter

[Catbird]

AP via CBS:

"The chairman of Pakistan's telecommunications authority says the government has blocked the social networking website Twitter because of material considered offensive to Islam.

Mohammad Yaseen says the website was blocked on Sunday because Twitter refused to remove material related to a competition on Facebook to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad."

As reported by Dawn (Pakistan media):

"Instructions to block the site came from Pakistan’s Ministry of Information Technology, said Yaseen. ”The ministry officials are still trying to make them (Twitter) agree, and once they remove that stuff, the site will be unblocked,” said Yaseen".

The Dawn article also refers to a similar incident with Facebook in 2010 and comments:

"It also sparked a good deal of soul-searching, especially among commentators, who questioned why Pakistanis could not be entrusted to decide for themselves whether or not to look at a website. Some observers noted that Pakistan had gone further than several other Muslim countries by banning Facebook, and said it showed the rise of conservative Islam in the country."

[Sonny]

Catbird, I heard that Leon Panetta has refused to pay the Pakis a toll charge of $5000 per truck load of supplies to Afghanistan.

[Potemkin]

Tor. Learn it, love it.

https://www.torproject.org/

[Catbird]

Originally Posted by Sonny

Catbird, I heard that Leon Panetta has refused to pay the Pakis a toll charge of $5000 per truck load of supplies to Afghanistan.

I don't know that the two issues are directly connected. But I do think that this is a handy way for Pakistan to show that it's distancing itself from NATO and "the West". Like a lot of other things in geopolitics these days, it's probably got a lot to do with image and PR and spin.

[Catbird]

Access to Twitter has been restored. But Pakistan has now involved Interpol in their efforts to sanitize Twitter. I don't see how Interpol has any jurisdiction in something like this, but there may be some fine print in some international treaty.

From PC World:

The microblogging site was unblocked at the orders of the country's prime minister, interior minister Rehman Malik said in Twitter messages on Sunday, but he requested that anti-Islam material that hurts the feeling of people should be stopped on Twitter.

...In a message later, Malik said the issue was taken up with the management of Twitter, but was declined. "Notice is now being served to twitter through Interpol to block such material," he added.

Another article about this mentions that India has similar concerns about content. More importantly, they are one of a number of countries that are proposing that the Internet should be government controlled, specifically through the U.N. Now that's a scary idea.

From The Hindu:

Move to form body with 50 governments to oversee internet governance

The raging controversy over possible excessive state regulation of the internet based on the IT Rules 2011 is now likely to be dwarfed by discussions in Geneva later this week over India's proposal to the United Nations General Assembly, for government control of the Internet.

...India is pushing for the creation of a forum called ‘Committee for Internet Related Policies' (CIRP) to develop internet policies, oversee all internet standards bodies and policy organizations, negotiate internet-related treaties and sit in judgment when internet-related disputes come up. The catch is that India's formal proposal is for CIRP to be funded by the U.N., run by staff from the U.N.'s Conference on Trade and Development arm and report directly to the U.N. General Assembly, which means it will be entirely controlled by the U.N.'s member states.