Pakistan blocks Wikipedia for not removing blasphemous content: Reports

Pakistan has blocked Wikipedia the online encyclopedia after it refused to remove offensive or blasphemous material according to media reports on SaturdayThe blacklisting of Wikipedia comes days after the Pakistan Telecom Authority PTA degraded Wikipedia services for 48 hours threatening to block it if the content deemed blasphemous was not deleted The News newspaper reportedWhen a PTA spokesperson was contacted late on Friday night and inquired about the blocking of Wikipedia the official confirmed that yes it had been blocked it saidOn the instruction of the high court the PTA on Wednesday degraded disrupting and slowing access to the encyclopedia website for 48 hours because there was blasphemous content on itAlso Read Donrsquot blame others for your own failures Taliban to PakistanWikipedia is a free online encyclopedia created and edited by volunteers around the world and hosted by the Wikimedia FoundationPTA spokesperson Malahat Obaid said the ban had primarily been imposed for noncompliance with the orders the Dawn newspaper reportedThe decision can be reviewed once Wikipedia removes sacrilegious content that has been identified by the regulatory authority the spokesperson addedThe PTA spokesperson stated that Wikipedia was approached for blockingremoval of the said content by issuing a noticeAn opportunity for a hearing was also provided however the platform neither complied by removing the blasphemous content nor appeared before the authorityGiven the intentional failure on part of the platform to comply with the directions of PTA the services of Wikipedia were degraded for 48 hours with the direction to blockremove the reported contentsOn Saturday the Wikimedia Foundation said it does not make decisions around what content is included on Wikipedia or how that content is maintainedIt added that this is by design to ensure that articles are the result of many people coming together to determine what information should be presented on the site resulting in richer more neutral articlesWe hope that the Pakistan government joins with the Wikimedia Foundation in a commitment to knowledge as a human right and restores access to Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects promptly so that the people of Pakistan can continue to receive and share knowledge with the world it saidSocial media giants Facebook and YouTube have been blocked in the past over content deemed blasphemousBlasphemy is a sensitive issue in Muslimmajority PakistanThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever