Afghanistan blocks YouTube

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. [caption id=“attachment_453442” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] 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