My Chronicles...

22/02: YouTube blocked by PTA!

The popular video sharing site 'YouTube' has been blocked by all ISPs in Pakistan on PTA directive. It is, reportedly, the second most visited website on the internet trailing Google itself, which owns YouTube.

This leads to a dark recollection of the blanket blocking of the blogspot.com domain which rendered all blogs hosted on Blogspot inaccessible for the majority of Pakistani users who didn't knew how to utilize proxy servers and about bypassing such restrictions.

An email from Micronet Broadband Limited [MBL], a leading ISP in Islamabad follows:

Dear Valued Customer:

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (www.pta.gov.pk) has directed all ISPs of the country to block access to www.youtube.com web site for containing blasphemous web content/movies.

The site would remain blocked till further orders from PTA. Meanwhile, Internet users can write to youtube.com to remove the objectionable web content/movies because this removal would enable the authorities to order un-blocking of this web site.

We're sorry for any inconvenience.

Best Regards

Manager
Technical Assistance Center
Micronet Broadband Pvt. Ltd.
Islamabad

I don't understand why exactly we should write to YouTube for removing the objectionable content. Why doesn't PTA blocks specific videos, if it want to censor the stuff, which itself is reprehensible. Why don't they, instead, raise an awareness campaign and let the people decide to not see those videos? Are they so incompetent that they don't know how to do it?

And most of all, why don't the complainants just grow a thicker skin?!?

I just now ended a call with MBL while writing up this post confirming the details above. It is indeed a sad state of affairs. I urge everyone to contact PTA and pressurize them by expressing your thoughts and feeling via the PTA website (www.pta.gov.pk) and through the media.

For complaining to PTA, there are multiple options:

1 - Call them on their 24/7 toll free number 0800-55055, or,
2 - Send a web form based complaints from this page, or,
3 - Contact the people listed below (via snail mail, telephone or email) depending on your locality, to voice/register your complain:

a. Officer Incharge PTA Complaint Cell.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority,
Sector F-5/1, Islamabad.
Phone No. 92-51-9225325, 9225318
Fax No. 92-51-2878127.
E-mail. complaint@pta.gov.pk

b. Director (Enforcement), Lahore.
PTA Zonal Office, 165-Abid Majid Road Adjacent Telephone Exchange, Lahore Cantt.
Tel: 92-42-6665022 Fax: 92-42-6654009
Email: ptalahore@pta.gov.pk

c. Deputy Director (Enforcement), Rawalpindi.
PTA Zonal Office, 222/5, Khadim Hussain Road, Rawalpindi Cantt.
Tel: 92-51-5585380, 5121362 (Exch) Fax: 92-51-5585761
Email: rawalpindi@pta.gov.pk

d. Director (Enforcement), Quetta.
PTA Zonal Office, 213-B, Jinnah Town, Quetta
Tel: 92-81-2829476 Fax: 92-81-2829477
Email: quetta@pta.gov.pk

e. Deputy Director (Enforcement), Peshawar.
PTA Zonal Office, Plot No. 11, Sector A-3, Phase-V, Hayatabad, Peshawar
Tel: 92-91-9217279, 5829178 Fax: 92-91-9217254
Email: peshawar@pta.gov.pk

f. Director (Enforcement), Karachi.
PTA Zonal Office, Wireless Compound, Opposite JPMC, Rafiqui Shaheed Road, Karachi. 75530
Tel: 92-21-5680101 Fax: 92-21-5680640
Email: karachi@pta.gov.pk

g. Deputy Director (Enforcement), Muzaffarabad.
PTA Regional Office, D-72, Upper Chattar Housing Scheme, Muzaffarabad.
Tel: 058810-33255 Fax: 058810-33256
Email: muzaffarabad@pta.gov.pk

Apart from this, spread the word where ever you have an online presence via email, blogs, forums, etc so that the maximum number of Pakistanis get to know about this. Wired Pakistan, a Pakistani Tech Forum is currently hosting a discussion on this topic in this thread.

I urge you, the reader, to not let a regulatory body [PTA] which is supposed to protect consumer interest, but has regularly failed to do so, force its will on 160 million population of Pakistan!