Pakistan has recently asked foreign companies to grant them a system to filter and block websites. The request comes after the use of encryption has been banned in the country as well as censorship of the SMS text messages has also been put into place. A lot the people are interpreting this as a means to curb freedom of expression of the internet due to the nearing of the elections in 2013 when most people are busy going for or against their favourite political side.
The Ministry of Information Technology and National ICT R&D Fund of Pakistan has decided that the system should be capable of blocking sites within a millisecond of the request being made by filtering the URLs (uniform resource locator). Already Pakistan has been known to ban a lot of the websites because they either considered to be anti-Islam or anti-Pakistan. For some reason, it has now treaded into the domain of blocking even those sites which are neither but only practice the right of freedom of expression.
With the rate of accessing porn sites being highest in the world, this is more than just an irony that the Pakistani government has decided to do this. Enfolding these measures into law of the land is something that makes it difficult to object and the government escapes taking these measures in the name of the national security, something that has been happening around the world too, especially in America. It is no surprise that Pakistan is also following suit to what has been going on against internet freedom worldwide.
Pakistan will filter internet
Thats great, Pakistan have to do this. This is a good turn.
I don’t think that it is such a good news. Except for filtering questionable stuff, they should not curb the freedom of speech, which is the basic point of the government to take this measure.
These sites should be banned…