Pakistan blocks access to YouTube in internet crackdown

Pakistan has blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube because of its "growing sacrilegious content".

Access to the social network Facebook has also been barred as part of a crackdown on websites seen to be hosting un-Islamic content.

On Wednesday a Pakistani court ordered Facebook to be blocked because of a page inviting people to draw caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Some Wikipedia pages are also now being restricted, latest reports say.

Correspondents say it remains to be seen how successful the new bans will be in Pakistan and whether citizens find a way round them. 'Derogatory material'

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority authorities said it had ordered internet service providers to "completely shut down" YouTube and prevent Facebook from being viewed within Pakistan.

It said the move came only after "all possible avenues" within its

YouTube says it is "looking into the matter and working to ensure that the service is restored as soon as possible". The site was briefly blocked in Pakistan in 2008 - ostensibly for carrying material deemed offensive to Muslims.

Facebook said on Wednesday that the content did not violate its terms.

There have been protests in several Pakistani cities against the Facebook competition.

These, it said, included "using regular channels available on Facebook and YouTube to launch [a] protest, to avoid appearances of derogatory material available on their websites".

Such material, the PTA said, had "increased in numbers as time passed by".

"PTA has so far blocked more than 450 links on the internet containing derogatory material," the statement said, adding that its move was an extension of Wednesday's high court order.

A YouTube spokesperson said: "YouTube offers citizens the world over a vital window on cultures and societies and we believe people should not be denied access to information via video.

"Because YouTube is a platform for free expression of all sorts, we take great care when we enforce our policies. Content that violates our guidelines is removed as soon as we become aware of it."

Facebook said in a statement on Wednesday: "While the content does not violate our terms, we do understand it may not be legal in some countries.

"In cases like this, the approach is sometimes to restrict certain content from being shown in specific countries."

'Draw Muhammad'

The controversy began with the Facebook competition called "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day". Depictions of the Prophet are forbidden in Islam.

A message on the competition's information page said it was not "trying to slander the average Muslim".

"We simply want to show the extremists that threaten to harm people because of their Muhammad depictions that we're not afraid of them."

The page contains caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and characters from other religions, including Hinduism and Christianity.

A hotline has been set up in Pakistan, asking members of the public to phone in if they see offensive material anywhere.

Islamic parties say they are planning nationwide protests in Pakistan.

Five people were killed in the country in 2006 during violent demonstrations following publication of Muhammad cartoons in a Danish newspaper.