Pakistan unblocks access to YouTube 3 years after banning it

More than three years after it was banned for posting a video deemed insulting to Islam, Pakistan has unblocked video sharing site, YouTube. A Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) official confirmed that all internet service providers had been directed to open access to YouTube.

The ban was lifted because Google, which owns YouTube, had now launched a Pakistan-specific version, in which the authorities can now filter content.

According to Pakistan's ministry of information technology: "Google has provided an online web process through which requests for blocking access of offending material can be made by the PTA to Google directly and Google/YouTube will accordingly restrict access to the said offending material for users within Pakistan."