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ISLAMABAD: The federal government has asked the internet providing companies to block more than 400,000 pornography websites, officials said on Tuesday, as part of a crackdown on what the apex court calls “offensive content”.
The move follows a Supreme Court order this month to ban online material considered blasphemous or objectionable.
Major pornography website are already barred in the country, though hundreds of thousands have fallen through the cracks of internet censors.
“ISPs (Internet Service Providers) have been directed to block more than 400,000 websites having pornographic content,” a senior government official told AFP.
Industry officials confirmed the move and said they have already started blocking such sites but it could take some time to complete.
Other websites, including Facebook and YouTube, have previously been banned as part of a government-led censorship campaign, and authorities continue to restrict thousands of online links.
Last week, government lifted the years-long YouTube ban, in place since 2012 after the video sharing site had uploaded blasphemous content.
Related: YouTube returns to Pakistan
But the localised version of the video-sharing site may still be regulated by authorities who can ask Google to remove material deemed inappropriate.
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Jan 26, 2016 11:31pm
Who decides what constitutes pornograpghy ?
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Jan 26, 2016 11:46pm
good thing if you can do it. Those websites are a big source of corruption for morality
and providers young people nothing but emotional garbage.
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Jan 26, 2016 11:49pm
Great step.These porn sites are corrupting the youth of our country.
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Jan 26, 2016 11:49pm
Can the government please utilize its constructive energies in opening up more schools, hospitals and in improving national security rather than wasting its time on such fickle and ridiculous things like blocking stuff on the internet.
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Jan 26, 2016 11:56pm
@umer nothing can corrupt you if your conscience is clear.
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Jan 26, 2016 11:58pm
@Shaan "Who decides what constitutes pornograpghy?"
All adult human beings know exactly what is and isnt pornography.
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Jan 26, 2016 11:59pm
@umer the youth of our country is corrupted by unemployment, failing health standards, radicalized ideology, obsolete standards of education and governmental indifference to all of this. If pornography really did corrupt youth, Americans and Britons would have been languishing way below us.
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Jan 27, 2016 12:02am
appropriate response by the concerned authorities and worthy of due praise. Now the second step should be banning the sale of pronograpic CDs from the vidio selling shops. Moral guidance and strict monitoring is some thing that can gurantee the moral health of our invaluable souls of energatic youth. With the soul tainted with falling into the pit of sins how we can expect our youth to rise above the occasion. Most accusd of rape cases have on record confessed that it was their habit to watch pronograpic material before undertaking such henious crime. All people are not sanints, as a matter of fact, therefore need to dissociate them from availing such immoral practices for the sake of their own moral safety.
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Jan 27, 2016 12:25am
I was in Pakistan in December and used normal PTCL home internet. I can safely say that YouTube and porn were freely available. Never had any trouble connecting to anything, which is how it should be as it's no one's business what I am viewing in the privacy of my home.
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Jan 27, 2016 12:27am
Anyone can access these sites with proxy servers which are available as free extensions in google chrome..
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Jan 27, 2016 12:31am
400,000 seems like a lot but one estimate I read suggest that there are over 200 million porn sites. Trying to control morality is a tough job - trying to control the internet is an impossible job.
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Jan 27, 2016 12:32am
China has over 100,000 people dedicated to controlling the internet without much success ... what chance does Pakistan have?
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Jan 27, 2016 12:39am
Wish government had taken measures to build constructive minds that automatically would have eradicated porn surfing. But what they did shows their capacity.
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Jan 27, 2016 12:41am
good!!!!!
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Jan 27, 2016 12:46am
@lafanga
Exactly my point. Those adult human beings can stay away from that pornograpghy. Why does Government have to waste thier resources to be a morality police.
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Jan 27, 2016 12:48am
watching porn is one of the factors that leads to pedophillia, which we sadly observe in our society!
a welcome step
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Jan 27, 2016 12:49am
Porn Websites Among Most Visited In Islamic Countries. Data collected by Alexa, a subsidiary of Amazon.com that tracks Web traffic around the world, revealed that pornographic sites were among the most visited Internet destinations in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon.
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Jan 27, 2016 12:54am
If Saudi Arabia can't block the pornography websites how can Pakistan?
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Jan 27, 2016 12:55am
In India, govt tried to ban, but public protested against it,
openly.
Lets see what happens here.
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Jan 27, 2016 12:56am
about time............
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Jan 27, 2016 12:58am
If you don't like, don't see it.
While browsing internet there is NO compulsion to visit those sites. If someone wants to visit those sites then it should be their personal choice.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:04am
here we go again.these people working for the gov.should be assigned to clean the streets
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Jan 27, 2016 01:09am
@Arun i wouldnt have started smoking if friend of mine didn't offer.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:13am
as a suggestion to government , start block the proxies aswell which are used to access those sites
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Jan 27, 2016 01:18am
This is a very good step and govt.must block these rubbish sites forever.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:20am
@Arun
How can you keep cleared your conscience?
But you will not understand it .
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Jan 27, 2016 01:24am
About time!
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Jan 27, 2016 01:26am
There couldn't be 400,000 porn sites on the internet.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:27am
@Aj .... We all feel that way when we get old, don't we?
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Jan 27, 2016 01:28am
It must be appreciated and think such sites should be blocked world wide.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:30am
Great step - I am in full agreement
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Jan 27, 2016 01:30am
@Socrates of Gilgit-baltistan ... The problem isn't falling into the Pit of Sins. The problem is climbing back out again.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:35am
Great move.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:39am
@yawar
That is a complete lie. There is no scientific proof for your statement. If the government wants to control something, it should control the maulvis who have destroyed our society. One dreams of the Pakistan that existed in the 60s to come back again.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:41am
yep blocking websites will solve Pakistan's problems.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:50am
@Socrates of Gilgit-baltistan I fully agree with you,
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Jan 27, 2016 02:15am
Porn may be corrupting our youth but extremist organisations whose leaders roam free corrupt them even more. Priorities, federal government, priorities.
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Jan 27, 2016 02:34am
@Arun um 99% ppl dont you might b saint specially kids dont know what they r getting themselves into
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Jan 27, 2016 02:41am
Not a business of the state to regulate private activity. If Nawaz is really concerned about youth welfare he should invest in education and employment opportunities
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Jan 27, 2016 02:55am
very good step. was long due
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Jan 27, 2016 03:08am
@Arun
Lets not talk fairy tales. If a young mind is exposed to it, the inclination and draw only increases.
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Jan 27, 2016 03:12am
@AJ completely agree with you
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Jan 27, 2016 03:21am
Noooooooo. Why is the world against porn.
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Jan 27, 2016 03:27am
with the bulk ban some good non porno sites cant be opened also I don't know why
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Jan 27, 2016 03:38am
How does the government get to decide what I do or watch in privacy of my own house? The more they suppress the more people will be interested in porno.
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Jan 27, 2016 03:39am
It's about time they (authorities) get their heads out of their behinds
Always knee jerk reactions, always trying to be politically correct.
So I guess the USA, Europe, and even Japan must be the most corrupt nations in the world.
This is NOT the problem
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Jan 27, 2016 03:44am
There is no way that the government can block each and every porn site. Where there is a will, there is a way. This appears to be government's attempt to distract people from burning issues (like Baccha Khan university being closed indefinitely). Shame on the government.
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Jan 27, 2016 04:12am
Good step... even though it's a constant battle. At least the censorship can catch 80% of porn sites. This will prevent minors from access to these sites.
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Jan 27, 2016 04:19am
@yawar
"watching porn is one of the factors that leads to pedophillia"
Complete nonsense. Where did you hear this? Porn is extremely popular across the world, while pedophillia is a rare psychiatric disorder. I've watched porn many times, and have never ever ever lusted after a child.
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Jan 27, 2016 04:24am
Well very good decision but as an IT professional I am afraid that how they get such huge list, seems its a number game
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Jan 27, 2016 05:15am
Our youth is very sharp they will figure out a way to break the blocking of these sites. What we need to do is educate our youth to use internet for development rather then using it negatively.
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Jan 27, 2016 05:20am
this is the best thing this government has done so far, in my view!!!!
In a society like pakistan there is no concept of girl friend ,boyfriend so these sites can for sure corrupt young minds and make them do crazy things . early marriage is a good solution too…..
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Jan 27, 2016 05:31am
There was a study that porn reduces rapes, not increases becuase I guess people have a virtual venue than the real.
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Jan 27, 2016 05:36am
do these many porn sites even exist ? Nowadays normal websites have vulgar advertisements on the web page but that does not mean they are porn sites.
There needs to be an open minded check mechanism on this. Not a simple Online Blackout mentality of everything with the picture of a female on it !
Morality starts from training at home and society. Peace.
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Jan 27, 2016 05:52am
People should have a right to do what they want. Who are these moral police and what gives them the right.
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Jan 27, 2016 06:03am
we have such an inept government whoes highest priority is to
Block porn and YouTube but Not giving security to its citizens
Block porn and YouTube but not give clean water to its citizens
Block porn and YouTube but not give education to its citizens
Block porn and YouTube but not give justice to its citizens
Block porn and YouTube but not give employment operate ties to its citizens
It's strange
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Jan 27, 2016 06:05am
The more you cover up sexual related material, the more people get curious about it and law breaking. People in the West have free access to porn, but number of sexual assault are much lower than other countries.
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Jan 27, 2016 06:10am
who will ban the porn DVDs, CDs easily available in the market .
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Jan 27, 2016 06:16am
honestly speaking this will only increase the frustration amongst people
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Jan 27, 2016 06:32am
Another wrong move by the government. Its not the governments job to impose morality on the public.
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Jan 27, 2016 07:50am
@Kamran Rasool The rest of the world is not that much developed.
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Jan 27, 2016 09:21am
Try it, it is good, but impossible, good education can bring more result.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:20pm
these porn sites are dangerous to our young generation who fall into its trap and commit sexual crimes - these sites are not only harmful for the mind and body but also harmful for our soul too
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Jan 27, 2016 04:08pm
A very good step
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Jan 27, 2016 05:01pm
good job. please make the list of sites public. the world must be porn free.
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