YouTube Disrupted in Pakistan During Imran Khan Speech

Last night, during the speech of PTI Chairman Imran Khan to a crowd at Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh, YouTube was disrupted in Pakistan. The format minister accused the government of temporarily blocking YouTube to deny live access to his speech at a political rally.

YouTube Disrupted in Pakistan During Imran Khan Speech

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The Youtube blocking accusation followed a ban on Saturday by the electronic media regulator on the live broadcast of Khan’s speeches, citing what it called his “hate speech” against state institutions.

“Imported government blocked YouTube midway through my speech,” Khan said on Twitter.

A spokesman for internet regulator the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) said in a statement on Saturday that Khan’s speeches were “prejudicial to the maintenance of law and order and likely to disturb public peace and tranquillity”. It also prohibited live broadcasts of his speeches by news channels, with immediate effect, but made an exception for recorded speech.

Soon after Saturday’s television ban, Khan’s party vowed to go live on “500+ YouTube and Facebook channels”.

However, many Pakistani users of social media reported problems in accessing YouTube on Sunday, just as Khan was about to address a gathering in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Many users took to Twitter to check whether YouTube was not working or it was just an internet issue. Former minister and senior PTI leader Hammad Azhar said ‘it seems access to YouTube has been illegally and forcefully shut down by this fascist and coward regime,’, while others also shared tweets claiming an outage of the video site. The hashtag of YouTube down in Pakistan is trending on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the PML-N government is looking for options to file a case against the former prime minister for his provocative speech.

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