Pakistan Telecommunication Authority reverts ‘obscene’ sms ban
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011 8:24:46 by Ammar Ahmad
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority reverts ‘obscene’ sms ban
On Tuesday, November 22, 2011 Pakistan rowed from demands that text messages containing nearly 1,700 “obscene” words should be blocked, following outrage from users and campaigners.
On November 14, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) distributed a list of 1,695 words in English and Urdu to operators, giving them seven days to implement a filtering system.
But the list was met with uproar, both at the attempt to censor messages and the inclusion of many seemingly innocuous terms, among them “Jesus Christ”, “lotion”, “athlete’s foot”, “robber”, “idiot”, “four twenty” and “harder”.
On Tuesday, PTA spokesman Mohammad Younis Khan said that the authority would consult civil society representatives and mobile phone operators on refining a much shorter list of words, giving no timeframe for any eventual ban.
“At the moment we are not blocking or filtering any word,” Khan said. “No final decision has been taken in this regard,” he added.
A PTA committee with representatives of civil society and mobile phone operators will decide on a “final list of objectionable words” which Khan conceded could be only around “a dozen”.
“We have no plan to block any word until and unless it is approved by that committee and it will take time to reach that decision,” he added.
A letter accompanying the list on November 14 said filtering was legal under the Pakistan Telecommunication Act of 1996 which prohibits people from transmitting messages that are “false, fabricated, indecent or obscene”.
Tags: PTA, sms, Telecommunication
Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=4423
Posted by Ammar Ahmad
on Nov 22 2011. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan.
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