Muhammed Cartoons

Pakistan Restores Twitter Access After Blocking It Over Mohammed Caricature Contest

From Facebook: Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

Pakistan has restored Twitter service even though many had already worked around the block.

Pakistan restored access to Twitter after briefly blocking the micro-blog over “blasphemous” posts about a Facebook competition involving caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed.

The website was blocked on Sunday by the telecoms authority on the orders of the IT ministry amid accusations it refused to remove messages about the Facebook contest.

But the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) restored access to Twitter in the evening, several hours after it was cut off, said spokesperson Mohammad Younis Khan.

The reason for the U-turn was not immediately clear. Khan said it was the IT ministry’s decision and he did not know why it had been taken, and no one from the ministry or Twitter was available for comment.

Speaking before the ban was lifted on Sunday, Khan said that there was “blasphemous material” on Twitter and that the organisers of the competition had been “trying to hurt Muslim feelings”. Islam bans images of the Prophet.

Sometimes here in America, we take our freedom of speech rights for granted.

Remember this type of censorship could rear its ugly head here.

We must be vigilant of our government to protect our liberty.

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