Facebook and Youtube and Flickr banned in Pakistan and several islamic countries

Facebook and Youtube and Flickr banned in Pakistan

Source: Tech crunch

A Pakistani court this morning ordered authorities to temporarily block social networking service Facebook over a competition encouraging users to publish caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on the site. Pakistani muslims stepped up to condemn the user-generated contest for blasphemy, as the depiction of any prophet is strictly prohibited in Islam (favorable or not).

The Facebook group “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” has generated heaps of criticism in the predominantly Muslim Islamic Republic of Pakistan – Muslims faithfuls set up online campaigns and other protests to grab the attention of the authorities.

A group of lawyers called the Islamic Lawyers’ Movement went a step further today and petitioned the court to order a blanket ban on Facebook in Pakistan. About 45 million Pakistani use the social networking site, according to various reports.

Justice Ejaz Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court directed the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority to block Facebook until May 31, when the court will open a detailed hearing into the case, and to submit a written reply to the petition by that date.

About 50 percent of the revenue for facebook is generated by Muslims and facebook has faced a loss of 20 billion dollars today.

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UPDATE to this article:
These websites are only banned in pakistan and not in any other islamic country...ban on youtube is lifted today after youtube administrators deleted the offending videos...ban on facbk is expected to be lifted on 31st may...