Pakistan Dials Its Islamic Net Censorship Up to 11, Shutters Yahoo and Bing

Pakistan's government has announced it will be filtering scores more Web sites for anti-Islamic content. Facebook, YouTube, and Wikipedia were just the start. The Ministry of Information Technology gave the order to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to begin monitoring and filtering many more Web sites suspected of playing host to anti-Islamic or merely blasphemous content. On the list: Google, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, Hotmail, MSN, and Amazon -- pretty much the most clicked-on links around the world. In addition to this, 17 specific Web pages will be actually blocked, including Islam Exposed and Jehad. DOT org. Partly this decision is motivated by a decision by a high court in an Eastern Pakistan city which ordered blocking of content from sites like YouTube because they contained material the judge deemed to be contrary to the "fundamental principles of Islam and its preaching."