Once again social networking sites face ban in Pakistan

The Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court has just ruled in favour of a petition to ban several social networking websites including Facebook Yahoo, MSN and Wikipedia.

The ruling released on May 13 found that Facebook and other websites were in violation of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and should be banned in Pakistan. The Lahore High Court judgment in favour of the petition number 10392/2010 suggests that, given that several other countries -- Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and China -- have blocked these websites, the Pakistani government should not consider the move unprecedented and “can solicit the necessary help from the said countries with regard to legislation in that regard.” This ruling comes as the anniversary of the first Draw Mohammed Day looms on May 20. Last year, Pakistan enacted a total ban on Facebook, YouTube and several other websites for almost two weeks in response to the provocative Facebook group “Let’s Draw Mohammed”. Official documents by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority reveal that about 12 000 websites were blocked during this time.