Pakistan Lifts YouTube Ban... Hopes Internet Stays In One Piece This Time
Date : 02 26 2008 Category : Business
Techdirt
When other countries have decided to ban YouTube, they've done it rather publicly, with a judge or politician stating very publicly that the site was to be banned for offensive videos. However, over the weekend, when Pakistan decided to ban YouTube, it tried to do so quietly, by simply telling various ISPs to block the site and hoping people wouldn't notice. That didn't work so well. As you might have noticed, thanks to the way some ISPs handle information, not only did it take out YouTube in Pakistan, but it ended up knocking it offline throughout much of the world, generating an awful lot of attention. And now, just about a day later, Pakistan has decided not to ban YouTube after all. So for a day's worth of a "quiet" ban on YouTube, Pakistan helped knock YouTube offline around the globe, got tons of attention to the fact that it was banning the site over some mysteriously "offensive" videos, and then didn't end up banning the site very long anyway. How effective was that plan?
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