The video-sharing website YouTube says it was taken out of service on
Sunday after Pakistan's government ordered the site to be blocked
because it contained un-Islamic material. Should governments censor
internet sites?
The owner of YouTube, Google, says the nearly two-hour outage of the
website was caused by what it calls "erroneous internet protocols",
sourced in Pakistan.
The Pakistani authorities ordered the Islamic republic's internet service
providers to block the website because its content included Danish
cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
Pakistan Telecom Authority "hijacked" the web server address of YouTube
and the video web site was mistakenly blocked by internet service
providers around the world.
In what circumstances would you allow governments to block access to
the internet? Do you believe any censorship is an attack on freedom of
expression? What are the wider lessons from the action by the Pakistani
authorities?