ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman Khan on Monday said efforts were being made to develop technical solution for purging unwanted material from the YouTube so that it could be reopened.
Talking to media persons, she said a team was working round the clock to block URLs containing blasphemous material and over 2700 URLs on YouTube had so far been blocked.
She said Youtube was blocked in Pakistan on the orders of the then prime minster on the recommendations of the Inter-Ministerial Committee comprising representatives from different ministries, law enforcement agencies and Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA).
The minister said in 2012 the IT Ministry issued a directive to PTA to install state of the art filtration system for the purpose. Howver, she said that the directive has not been implemented by the PTA.
She said Youtube would be reopened subject to installation of an effective filtration system. However, she added, the mandate of reopening YouTube is that of the Inter Ministerial Committee.
The minister said Google was also not cooperating with Pakistan in this regard.
She, however said, “No timeline could be given for the reopening of YouTube but we are working towards this goal.”