People in Pakistan are waking up to find Instagram is blocked in the country. Attempting to access Instagram.com brings up the much-hated “Surf Safely” page that reads: “The site you are trying to access contains content that is prohibited for viewership from within Pakistan.” The Instagram apps won’t refresh either.
The apparent Instagram censorship started 13 hours ago, according to a sudden surge of messages posted to Twitter. The block is still ongoing.
This comes after YouTube was blocked in Pakistan in September 2012. YouTube remains censored in the country.
Whereas YouTube’s blockage was directly related to a controversial, US-made anti-Islamic film, it’s not clear what has motivated the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to censor Instagram – if that is indeed what has happened.
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Instagram suffered a global two hour-outage while Asia slept, but it’s now working again. We’ve contacted Facebook’s Asia HQ for details on what’s going on in Pakistan with Instagram.
In the meantime, a flood of angry, bemused, phlegmatic, and funny tweets are pouring forth on the subject of Instagram’s fate in Pakistan.
Now they have banned Instagram in Pakistan shame on PTA. pic.twitter.com/GQRYfR5Bsu
— kazi shahbaz (@kazishahbaz) August 29, 2014
Celebrate New Pakistan which is actually just like Old Pakistan #Instagram Blocked pic.twitter.com/rYaERAEjkN
— norbalm ɯןɐqɹou (@norbalm) August 29, 2014
Can anybody at #PTA let me know why I cannot access #Instagram in #Pakistan ? This deplorable & not acceptable
— Fareshteh Aslam (@Fareshte) August 29, 2014
Instagram not accessible…
Last 6 hours and Instagram is not accessible in Pakistan!
Is it justme?
#instagram #Pakistan #block #youtube
— Rana Hamza (@_ranahamza) August 29, 2014
#instagram has been banned by #PTCL in #Pakistan.. WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK pic.twitter.com/01XeQJryNm
— Nauman Zahoor (@naumanzahoor) August 28, 2014
Can someone please ask the IT minister why @Instagram has been banned in Pakistan? Why are we banning everything in a true democracy?
— Nuzhat S. Siddiqi (@guldaar) August 29, 2014
If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.
With Pakistan returning to the coup old days, maybe they banned Instagram because it had no rose-tinted filters? #deep
— karachikhatmal (@karachikhatmal) August 29, 2014
The post Instagram appears to be blocked in Pakistan, uproar hits Twitter appeared first on Tech in Asia.
Instagram appears to be blocked in Pakistan, uproar hits Twitter
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