Pakistan YouTube incident adds to international outage

[SimRabbit 48]

After a two hour stretch yesterday of refusing service to YouTube users across the globe, the Google-owned site said Pakistan is to blame.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ordered ISPs to re-route traffic away from a specific YouTube URL pointing to a trailer for Dutch Politician Geert Wilders' anti-Islamic video.

Wilders' video was widely anticipated to incite unrest among the Muslim community abroad, as the far right-wing politician is an outspoken anti-Islamist. Wilders told the BBC his film shows that the Koran is an inspiration for murder. Iran has already put pressure on the Netherlands to ban the film's release.

In YouTube's official statement regarding the two-hour outage, Pakistan was determined to be the source of "erroneous Internet Protocols" to which traffic was being routed. Though in the statement, YouTube does not detail exactly what happened, analysts say Pakistan's faulty route map somehow leaked and was adopted by PCCW, a major Asian telco. PCCW then broadcast the new route, and routers throughout much of the world changed their route maps accordingly, sending everyone in the wrong direction.

Preventative content blocking is not uncommon on the video site, as a result of other nations that have deemed videos harmful. China found some to be subversive, Iran found some immoral, Turkey found one in particular to have illegally insulted the name and image of its founding father Ataturk, Morocco determined some to be too critical of its treatment of Western Saharan peoples, Brazil found some to be embarrassing to public figures, and Thailand found one to be too critical of King Bhumbiol Adulyadej.

However, due to the inflammatory nature of Wilders' video and the offense to Muslims worldwide, some are questioning whether this was actually a simple mistake in blocking, or a premeditated move by Islamic extremists.

Pakistan has felt the effects of unfavorable media coverage since the Kargil Conflict in the late 1990s, a battle with the Indian military in Jammu and Kashmir. Due to the growing power of the Internet and media there at that time, some analysts believe the larger and more credible Indian media helped the country garner worldwide support, and defame Pakistan. Former prime minister -- and recent assassination victim -- Benazir Bhutto spoke in 1999, calling Kargil "Pakistan's Biggest Blunder."

Shortly after this, Pervez Musharraf took over as prime minister. Early in his tenure, Musharraf spoke out against extremism and terrorism, pledged to battle islamic extremism within Pakistan, and took measures to change the country's unstable political hierarchy.

Of these, the elections in 2007 were viewed as a move by the country toward Democracy. "Islam and democracy are fully incompatible," Geert Wilders told The Washington Post in 2005. "They will never be compatible -- not today, and not in a million years."

A month after Musharraf's election, he declared a state of emergency due to Islamist militants and interference from the judiciary. He ordered the arrest of political dissidents, activists, lawyers and supreme court justices, and shut down all private television stations.

After resigning from his military position to act as a civilian leader, Musharraf's PML-Q party lost control of Parliament, one senior opposition leader called for the president to step down.

Source: http://www.betanews.com/article/Pakistan_YouTube_incident_adds_to_international_outage/1203967670

quote>

I believe this is wrong. Pakistan is violatating the free speech right. Why are some muslim countries like that?

They are like little kids trying to grab everyone's attention doing stupid stuff.

[Bumdark 3]

I'm usually good at these sorts of complexe stuff, but could someone will superior language skills please explain what that load of waffle about means? I don't understand any of it. Was Pakistan rerouting everyone who tried to access a certain video, or something...? I can't understand any of it.

[SimRabbit 48]

Thsi article is more clear.

[screamingman12 30]

Apparently some jackass got the idea to bash the Muslim culture by calling all of them "mass murderers" and throw their culture in the dirt (no doubt making references to 9/11). The Pakistani Gov't was trying to block access to the video.

[patriots_1228 51]

they should have blocked it and redirected to the youtube homepage, not to a video intended to infuriate people and encourage terrorism.

Clearly Pakistan is favoring terrorists.

They aren't allowing us to go after Osama/Al Queda in there country, even though we have a good idea of which area he is in. Now they are trying to get all the muslims riled up.

[Jman47 0]

pakistan is really no better than iran, exept they pretend to be our allies.

they let us go after all the little guys in al queada, but they wont help us get the kingpins who we really want.

[belfastuniguy 18]

Apparently some jackass got the idea to bash the Muslim culture by calling all of them "mass murderers" and throw their culture in the dirt (no doubt making references to 9/11). The Pakistani Gov't was trying to block access to the video.quote>

Well the reason is actually more complex than that......so that is an oversimplification of the issue.

Anyway

Firstly I am appalled by the action of Pakistan they have no right whatsoever to interfere with the internet or any site for that matter. Firstly they have no ownership of Youtube and no government has any ownership of the internet as a whole and as such have no right to play about with it.

This is also a flagrant breach of freedoms of speech and expression and must be condemned as should all governments that seek to prolong their views my banning material. If people are so offended by anti-Muslim, anti-Black, anti-Catholic then you know. DON'T WATCH IT......

While of course I would find such material offensive in some cases I respect the right for it to exist.

[sixers33 3]

Is it really surprising that Middle Eastern countries censor anything anti-islamic and pro-jewish?

[belfastuniguy 18]

Pakistan is not a Middle-Eastern country...............

[sixers33 3]

Middle-Eastern/Asian

I am mostly referring to culture instead of location i guess... And they do border Iran and Afghanistan.

[belfastuniguy 18]

Well there is a difference between Asian and the Middle East. Culture does not tie your nation to a specific region, also Afghanistan is not a middle-eastern country either.

[Yeah_Right 2]

There is nothing wrong here. Way of life is different in each country. What is considered decent in one country, can be considered as obscene in another. As for the "pakistan is really no better than iran, except they pretend to be our allies." -Jman 07. I am outraged that you can say that. I live in Pakistan, and no, Osama Bin Laden is not hiding in my house. I feel that our bond with USA is a big step in fighting terrorism that has plagued our country.

it is the fault of a few individuals that gives Muslim countries a bad name. Please don't generalise.

I am half Christian half muslim (not that it should make a difference)

[sixers33 3]

Originally posted by: belfastuniguy Well there is a difference between Asian and the Middle East. Culture does not tie your nation to a specific region, also Afghanistan is not a middle-eastern country either.quote>

 

I am sure you get what i am saying.

[sixers33 3]

Originally posted by: Yeah_Right There is nothing wrong here. Way of life is different in each country. What is considered decent in one country, can be considered as obscene in another. As for the "pakistan is really no better than iran, except they pretend to be our allies." -Jman 07. I am outraged that you can say that. I live in Pakistan, and no, Osama Bin Laden is not hiding in my house. I feel that our bond with USA is a big step in fighting terrorism that has plagued our country.

it is the fault of a few individuals that gives Muslim countries a bad name. Please don't generalise.

I am half Christian half muslim (not that it should make a difference)quote>

 

I would say that there is alot wrong with having little freedom of speech, but that's my opinion. I do like to occasionaly have a joke about my religion that i am probably the worst at actually practicing.

[Jman47 0]

of course hes not hiding in ur backyard, hes hiding out in the northern boonies where he has his support. im sorry if i offended you, but the fact is while pakistan says to be helping in the fight against terrorism, IMO if they were doing everything they could osama bin laden would be dead or captured by now, as well as other top al quadea officials.

just so you know i dont completely hate pakistan, you guys just held elections allowing women as well as men to vote, and your police force did a good job  limiting violence from extremist groups. your country is by far more progressive than other muslim nations, but i belive you could still do alot more in securing your north and eliminating extremist parties and groups from your country. your doing well, but you still have a long way to go.

[Patricius Maximus 236]

In the United States, it would be an explicit violation of free speech, but they are not us - and they can have free speech however the Pakistanis want it. I do believe, however, that the internet or it's websites should not be censored in any way.

[Yeah_Right 2]

Jman47, do u have any evidence as to where he is hiding? How do you know he is in Pakistan?

[Meg 368]

Yeah_Right has a point.   Let's not make accusations.

[neongamer 3]

Yeah, he's not in Pakistan, he's here:

Sorry, I just HAD to show that .

[toxicpiano 125]

Face it, Bin Laden is probably dead. 'Al Qaeda' has a very good propaganda wing.

[patriots_1228 51]

Originally posted by: Yeah_Right Jman47, do u have any evidence as to where he is hiding? How do you know he is in Pakistan?

quote>

 

US government has a fairly good guesstimate of which region in Pakistan hes hiding in. Obviously, it could be wrong, but a strong guesstimate is better than nothing.

[Barbarossa 51]

.

  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[joe2102001 19]

Originally posted by: belfastuniguy Well there is a difference between Asian and the Middle East. Culture does not tie your nation to a specific region, also Afghanistan is not a middle-eastern country either.quote>

 

Well to be accurate that WHOLE area is called Southwest Asia. 

[SimRabbit 48]

neongamer: so osama has been hiding in that leg for the past years. he is a smarty.