Pakistan cracks down on access to 1,800 porn sites, what else?
Under pressure from the religious parties that have made recent gains (in the last elections) due to an increasing backlash against the pro-American moderates and made worse by the Iraqi Freedom initiative, Internet censorship has arrived in Pakistan according to this AP story in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Right now it appears that only porn sites are being blocked but next it may be any other sites that the religious right or the government disagrees with, maybe sites that talk about safe sex or HIV/AIDS or what have you...which is the whole problem with starting censorship.
Pakistani authorities said Sunday they've blocked 1,800 Web sites in a crackdown on Internet pornography in this deeply conservative Muslim country.
But it's not proving to be easy.
"Curbing porn sites is as difficult as blocking the wind," said Web engineer Farhan Parpia, of the state-owned telecommunications company. "You block one, and dozens more come up like mushrooms."