Second Anniversary, On Its Way!

By Rida Zaidi

'Surf Safely... prohibited for viewer ship from within Pakistan!' This is the message that pops up on computer screens when you try to access You Tube that has been banned in the country for the past two year.It was September 17, 2012 when then Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf ordered the Information Ministry to block the world's largest videos sharing website in the country. The You Tube ban is a punishment (presumably to the site) for hosting a trailer of the blasphemous film, The Innocence of Muslims. Pakistani internet campaigners, mostly younger users, have been lobbying against the removal of the entire site by claiming it an act of "state censorship" and, therefore is despotic and tyrannical. Although other Islamic countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh also initially imposed the ban, it currently remains in effect only in Pakistan.

So on September 17,2014 we will celebrate the second anniversary of YouTube ban. But the question is that what changes and difficulties it created for the youth of Pakistan who were frequent users of YouTube? As YouTube was a major source of entertainment and a platform to find new music. Some youngsters are of the view that with the ban on YouTube state has violated their right of freedom of information. Youth is struggling as other than the controversial material there is also a wealth of truly helpful and educational material available on the site. YouTube has also been noted as being one of the most famous social media platforms for showcasing new and creative work for all age ranges. YouTube contains step-by-step tutorials about various techniques for painting, sculpting, and art projects etc. YouTube users are able to access full class lectures on a variety of subjects. The new emerging talent that includes singers, bands, musicians can upload video based on their free of cast and can promote their talent as the users of the site are spread all over the globe. So, it show that youth is seriously facing number of problems being not able to access all this. The fact is that this generation depends on and favours visual and virtual media (preferably brief), rather than written and physical sources of information.

In the meanwhile, citizens are still waiting for access to return. Some are able to open YouTube through proxies, but most proxies are unreliable and face connection issues. Those who do not have the patience to wait for the proxies to load are content to wait for the ban to be lifted. There are other sites for artists and musicians to upload and promote their work, including Vimeo and Dailymotion. However, these sites are still much less popular than YouTube, and enjoy less viewership.

Here everyone must be thinking that what is the solution of the problem? It's really simple. Interstitials were offered to Pakistan just like they were offered to Bangladesh, which accepted the solution last year and ended the ban.YouTube has already applied this, Pakistan doesn't even have to request it - it's been done. All that remains is for the government to make the decision to un-ban YouTube and move forward. As now that the controversial video is no longer on the site, people question the reason for the ban.

The world is changing more rapidly than ever before due to increasing technological advances. A decade ago YouTube did not exist; today it is reshaping how people communicate. So, how is life without YouTube? You know how it is with technology - once something becomes so ubiquitous and so universally used, it is simply impossible to imagine life without it. And how did we survive without YouTube? And for how long we have to survive without it? Only the God knows.