Pakistan blocks Wikipedia over ‘blasphemous content’
- PTA had earlier in the week given Wikipedia a 48-hour ultimatum to remove material without publically specifying its exact objections
ISLAMABAD: Wikipedia was blocked in Pakistan on Saturday after authorities censored the website for hosting “blasphemous content”.
The online encyclopedia had been blocked across the country on Friday “after it failed to respond to our repeated correspondence over the removal of the blasphemous content and meet the deadline”, Malahat Obaid, a spokesman for the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, told AFP on Saturday.
The PTA had earlier in the week given Wikipedia a 48 hour ultimatum to remove material, without publically specifying its exact objections.
“They did remove some of the material but not all,” Obaid said. “It will remain blocked until they remove all the objectionable material.”
An AFP reporter in Pakistan was not able to access the site from a mobile phone on Saturday. The Wikimedia Foundation — the non-profit fund managing Wikipedia — said the block “denies the fifth most populous nation in the world access to the largest free knowledge repository”.
“If it continues, it will also deprive everyone access to Pakistan’s knowledge, history, and culture,” a statement said.
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