Pakistan lifted a ban on YouTube and reinstated it after three minutes, right after it realized that an Anti-Islam video, "Innocence of Muslims", was still available on the Google-owned video sharing service.
Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf imposed the ban on September 17th following violent protests in response to the video. The ban was revoked after the government believed that steps had been taken to ensure that the offensive content would not be accessible.
The video in question was made in the United States and it ridicules Prophet Muhammad. Upon its spread over the Internet, the Pakistani government immediately ordered all ISPs to block the offensive material.
On Twitter, Rehman Malik (@SenRehmanMalik), Pakistan's interior minister, tweeted saying that the government lifted the ban on YouTube due to massive public demand, confident that it could easily filter out the offensive video. The following was the minister's tweet :
"There was a gr8 demand to unblock Utube from all sections of society esp fellow tweeps..expect the notification tday! Hope u r all happy now"It is widely believed that right after the ban was lifted, Geo, a powerful private television news network, reported that the anti-Islam video was still available on YouTube, causing the government to reinstate the ban.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Technology News
May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.