The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority has asked YouTube to block “vulgar, indecent, immoral, nude and hateful” content in Pakistan.
In a press Thursday, the authority said some YouTube videos also contained hate speeches aimed at other Muslim sects that have “extremely negative effects” on viewers.
YouTube has also been asked to put in place an effective content monitoring and moderation mechanism so that the objectionable videos remain restricted to the Pakistani audience.
In July 2020, the Supreme Court also pointed to the use of social media and YouTube as a means of disseminating objectionable content by hearing a bond application filed through a type accused of a sectarian crime. This has once sparked a debate about whether YouTube should be banned in Pakistan or not.
Tania Aidrus, former assistant prime minister for virtual rights, and federal Minister of Science Fawad Chaudhry have opposed banning the transmission platform.
In September 2012, Pakistan banned access to YouTube until 2016 after a blasphemous film was posted on the site.
Aidrus said Pakistani content creators had suffered a great deal of those years and that banning it only when Pakistani YouTubers began creating an ecosystem would deprive many other people of jobs.
Similarly, Chaudhry noted that the courts and PTA wiped out the “moral police.” He added that this would only damage Pakistan’s generation industry.