The video-sharing site YouTube has been banned in Pakistan since September 2012. The ban came about because an anti-Islam video was posted on the site and YouTube's owners refused to remove it. According to the Express Tribune, "A statement from the Prime Minister’s office read: 'The direction has been given after YouTube refused to heed to the advice of the government of Pakistan to remove blasphemous film from its site.'"
An editorial posted last Sunday on the Express Tribune states that the problem lies in "the government’s inability to recognise that it cannot police the internet and any plans to do so will just plunge the nation into a recess of the dark ages from where there is no way forward."
The Pakistani government has had talks with the owners of YouTube, but they have been unsuccessful. According to The News International, "Ministries of Law and Information Technology said complete blocking of sacrilegious content on the video sharing website was not possible. They also said the YouTube was indifferent to extend cooperation to the government of Pakistan."
The entire site of YouTube has been banned for the past six months in Pakistan because of one so-called "blasphemous" video. Pakistani musicians and their supporters have begun protesting on a Facebook page called Youtube Aloud. A representative for the page, Usman Riaz, was quoted in the Express Tribune as asking, “Does it make sense to burn down an entire library just because you don’t agree with the contents of one of its books?”
This question really hits the nail on the head of the problem. The government chose to ban an entire website because one piece of content was deemed offensive. An article in the Pakistan Observer brings the point home: "It is high time that the government adopts effective measures to facilitate the public while simultaneously dealing with the blasphemous content." The question still remains though, will the government of Pakistan finally listen?