Sunday, May 19th 01:43 AM IST

Afghanistan blocks YouTube

Sep 12, 2012

Kabul: An Afghan official says the government has temporarily blocked access to YouTube to prevent people from watching a film that ridicules Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

Reuters

Aimal Marjan, general director of information technology at the Ministry of Communications, says the site was blocked for about 90 minutes Wednesday until YouTube took the video down.

He says access to the site was then restored. Marjan says the government decided to temporarily deny access to YouTube because of concerns the video could spark protests.

The decision came after President Hamid Karzai condemned the film he described as “inhuman and insulting.”

Earlier this year, Afghans rioted after U.S. soldiers serving at Bagram prison north of Kabul mistakenly burned hundreds of Qurans and other religious materials that had been taken from the facility’ library.

AP

Firstpost encourages open discussion and debate, but please adhere to the rules below, before posting. Comments that are found to be in violation of any one or more of the guidelines will be automatically deleted:

Personal attacks/name calling will not be tolerated. This applies to comments directed at the author, other commenters and other politicians/public figures

Please do not post comments that target a specific community, caste, nationality or religion.

While you do not have to use your real name, any commenters using any Firstpost writer's name will be deleted, and the commenter banned from participating in any future discussions.

Comments will be moderated for abusive and offensive language.

Please read our comments and moderation policy before posting