I am sure most of you guys take the freedom on the Internet for given. If you live in a western country, this is a consequence of being able to access any website and to publish anything you feel compelled to.
That is not the situation on all parts of the world, however. On some countries people can’t access basic websites like Hotmail or Wikipedia. On others, they can’t have blogs or create websites. On others yet, they can’t even own a computer with Internet access!
Over at DailyBits we did a compilation with the Top 10 Countries Censoring the Web.
Here is a quote from the 10th position, Pakistan:
The rundown
Pakistan started censoring the web in 2000, when the main target was anti-Islamic content. Over the time, it seems, they liked the possibility to control the Internet traffic, and have been increasing the scope of their censorship system ever since.
How does the censorship work?
There are only three international gateways on the country, and all of them are controlled by the Pakistan Telecommunication Company. The government, therefore, is able to monitor and block most unwanted traffic using filtering software (although their technical apparatus is not sophisticated).
Internet service providers are also required by law to monitor the activity of their clients to make sure that they are not accessing prohibited websites.
What kind of content is blocked?
In the first years of the web censorship in Pakistan, the main target was anti-Islamic content and websites that were related to political autonomy movements (e.g., the Balochi one). In 2003, however, the Pakistan Telecommunication Company declared that they would also officially block all pornographic websites.
In 2006 mainstream western websites, including Wikipedia and several newspapers, got blocked as well. The intensification of the censorship was propelled by the episode of the Danish cartoons that contained images of the Prophet Muhammad.
Check the link above to read the full article and see the other 9 countries.
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