Pakistan bars 13,000 obscene sites

It is the end of the run for obscene websites in Pakistan, as officials block some 13,000 such sites in the country, confirms First Post. Addressing the National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, while answering a calling attention notice, Parliamentary Secretary for Information Technology, Nawab Liaqat Ali Khan affirmed that obscene websites were a grave problem and that they are taking steps to curb the spread of such sites in the country.

Websites with obscene content blocked in Pakistan (Image credit: Getty Images)

Unlike their neighbours, India and China, who have an automated filtration system in place, Pakistan wouldn't find a similar mechanism affordable, and hence that idea is ruled out. However, even after seeing a mechanism as such, as an option, Khan stated that the authorities will find it difficult to block all obscene websites, since most of these websites are not based in the country. This puts them in a helpless situation, since if the website is not based in Pakistan, then cannot possibly penalise them.

The country began coming down heavily on obscene sites, since last year, when more and more people began filing formal complaints, regarding the nature of content on some sites. Back then, sites like Facebook, YouTube, among others were banned entirely in the country, and only when civil society groups raised an objection, did the authorities begin selectively blocking pages that contained explicit material.