Sunday 20 May 2012

Pakistan blocks Twitter access over 'blasphemous content'

Pakistani authorities today blocked access to Twitter on the ground that it was being used to publicise a contest for blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on Facebook. The move came hours after Interior Minister Rehman Malik's claim in a message posted on Twitter early this morning that no restrictions would be imposed on the popular micro-blogging site. The Information Technology Ministry said Twitter had been blocked for publicising "blasphemous and inflammatory content". Calls for participation in the contest for blasphemous caricatures were being made on Twitter, it said.
The ministry said Twitter was blocked after it failed to respond to several requests from Pakistan for taking action against blasphemous content. The ministry claimed it had contacted Twitter several times but the site's administrators had failed to respond. Users from across Pakistan reported that they were unable to access the site on their computers and mobile phones since the afternoon. An estimated six million people use Twitter in Pakistan.

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