Pakistan blocks Wikipedia for not removing blasphemous content: Reports
Islamabad (PTI): Pakistan has blocked Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, after it refused to remove offensive or blasphemous material, according to media reports on Saturday.
The blacklisting of Wikipedia comes days after the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) degraded Wikipedia services for 48 hours, threatening to block it if the content deemed blasphemous' was not deleted, The News newspaper reported.
When a PTA spokesperson was contacted late on Friday night and inquired about the blocking of Wikipedia, the official confirmed that "yes" it had been blocked, it said.
On the instruction of the high court, the PTA on Wednesday degraded disrupting and slowing access to the encyclopedia website for 48 hours because there was blasphemous content on it.
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation.
PTA spokesperson Malahat Obaid said the ban had primarily been imposed for non-compliance with the orders, the Dawn newspaper reported.
"The decision can be reviewed once Wikipedia removes sacrilegious content that has been identified by the regulatory authority," the spokesperson added.
The PTA spokesperson stated that Wikipedia was approached for blocking/removal of the said content by issuing a notice.
An opportunity for a hearing was also provided; however, the platform neither complied by removing the blasphemous content nor appeared before the authority.
Given the intentional failure on part of the platform to comply with the directions of PTA, the services of Wikipedia were degraded for 48 hours with the direction to block/remove the reported contents.
On Saturday, the Wikimedia Foundation said "it does not make decisions around what content is included on Wikipedia or how that content is maintained".
It added that this is "by design to ensure that articles are the result of many people coming together to determine what information should be presented on the site, resulting in richer, more neutral articles".
"We hope that the Pakistan government joins with the Wikimedia Foundation in a commitment to knowledge as a human right and restores access to Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects promptly so that the people of Pakistan can continue to receive and share knowledge with the world," it said.
Social media giants Facebook and YouTube have been blocked in the past over content deemed blasphemous.
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'Governor must stop misusing' constitutional office: Cong MP on Ravi for skipping Assembly address
New Delhi (PTI): With Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi walking out of the Assembly without delivering his customary address to the House, Congress MP Manickam Tagore on Tuesday said the state will not accept the erosion of its democratic institutions and the governor must stop "misusing" a constitutional office.
Tamil Nadu Governor Ravi walked out of the state Assembly without delivering his customary address to the House in its maiden session of the year, alleging, among others, "inaccuracies" in the DMK government's prepared text.
Chief Minister M K Stalin slammed the governor for "walking out in violation of tradition and ethos," and later piloted a resolution saying the English version of the address was assumed to have been read.
Reacting to the development, Congress MP Tagore said, "Why does Governor Ravi repeatedly refuse to follow the Constitution of India? Once again, he has acted in a manner that undermines and insults the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly -- a democratically elected body of the people."
The Constitution is clear that the governor is a constitutional head, not a parallel authority, he said in a social media post in Tamil.
"He (the governor) must act on the aid and advice of the elected state government (Article 163). Reading out personal opinions, selectively altering the Assembly address, or withholding assent indefinitely is not constitutional discretion - it is constitutional defiance," Tagore said.
Noting that the Tamil Nadu Assembly represents millions of people, the Congress leader said, "disrespecting the House is not disrespecting a party - it is disrespecting democracy and federalism".
"Supreme Court judgments (SR Bommai, Nabam Rebia) are clear: Governors must act with neutrality, restraint, and constitutional morality - not as political agents of the Centre," he said.
Tamil Nadu will not accept the erosion of its democratic institutions, Tagore asserted.
"The governor must either uphold the Constitution or stop misusing a constitutional office to create confrontation," he said.
