Pakistan blocks anti-Islam YouTube video

The Pakistan government, on Saturday blocked access to snippet from an anti-Islam movie which triggered demonstrations across the country in retailiation to the film.

According to The Times of India on Saturday, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had blocked pages on YouTube and other video sharing sites which had a clip from the controversial movie. They said they had been directed by the country's information technology (IT) ministry to block the video.

Rehman Malik, interior minister said the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority had been asked to ban the anti-Islam movie trailer across the country. No one is allowed to project hate content against Prophet Muhammad, he had told reporters.

The country's Foreign Office had also said the movie "deeply hurt" the feelings of Pakistanis and Muslims around the world. 

Massive protests raged across the country on Sunday against the anti-Islam film--made in the United States-- with protesters burning U.S. flags and effigies of President Barack Obama, AFP reported.

This is not the first time the country has blocked online content. The PTA had blocked Twitter from orders by the IT ministry in May after the microblogging site allegedly refused to remove an offensive post, before subsequently restoring it. In February, the government had blocked 13,000 "obscene" sites and called it a "serious issue" that the government is trying to address at the moment.