Can one really censor or ban the Internet? I suppose if you happen to live in North Korea, then that is a very real possibility, but for the rest of the free world, doing so would be unthinkable to say the least. Having said that, there are still several countries out there that do their bit to limit access to selected websites or online services where their people are concerned, and Pakistan is one such country after its officials have been given the power to block content that they deem to be offensive. In fact, YouTube rolled out a special version of its video sharing service for Pakistan only, where government officials would be able to have the authority to remove any kind of content that it deems to be offensive.
According to Pakistan’s Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom, the new version of YouTube would empower the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to block any kind of offending material, mentioning, “On the recommendation of PTA, Government of Pakistan has allowed access to recently launched country version of YouTube for Internet users in Pakistan. Google has provided an online web process through which requests for blocking access of the offending material can be made by PTA to Google directly and Google/YouTube will accordingly restrict access to the said offending material for users within Pakistan.”