Pakistan hints at blocking Google, Youtube

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Pakistan Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, has hinted blocking Google and Youtube if the search engine and the video-sharing website do not help his government in tracking the militants.
    
Rehman Malik told reporters in Islamabad that Pakistan reserves the right to block these services to prevent terrorists from using the two services.

The Interior Minister asked the internet service providers to extend their help to the government for exterminating the menace of terrorism from the country.

He said the government would be compelled to block certain internet service providers' sites, if they did not extend cooperation to the government.

Malik said that Taliban and other terrorist organisations were sharing intelligence through internet and curbing these activities was imperative.

He said that militants, who attacked the Indian commercial hub of Mumbai in 2008, also used internet in the United States for communication.

He added that Pakistan can also take legal action against Google if it did not help Pakistan provide information about the militants.

He noted that the government has already consulted legal experts for any possible action.

Further steps would be taken to improve the performance of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and competent lawyers would be selected for the legal branch, he said.

He disclosed that he has directed the FIA to eliminate gray traffic.

In future the circle head of FIA and relevant Pakistan Telecommunication Authority officials would be held responsible for gray traffic in their areas.

Officials say that during the last two years 44 raids have been conducted against gray traffic and 102 persons have been arrested.

The Pakistani authorities said they had recently blocked private browsing in an attempt to disrupt terrorist communications, they said.

Pakistan had temporarily blocked Facebook last year after blasphemous caricatures were uploaded on the social network.

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