Pakistan, Bangladesh Block YouTube Amid Protests Against Anti-Islam Film

Pakistan and Bangladesh have blocked Google’s YouTube to keep people from watching the anti-Islam video that has sparked riots across the Middle East and Southeast Asia over the past week, Bloomberg News reported.

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The trailer for Innocence of Muslims led to anti-U.S. and Western violence to spread, which has caused debate about whether YouTube should delete it or block access to it. Last week, the online video site had pulled down the video in Egypt, citing a legal complaint.

Both Pakistan and Bangladesh have seen protests against the movie in recent days.

Bloomberg quoted Pakistan's prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, as saying that YouTube had ignored a request to remove the video. As a result, the site would remain inaccessible in his country until it is removed, he added.

"Blasphemous material will not be tolerated," Bloomberg quoted him as saying. Bangladesh also blocked the site.

Google said in a statement that it had "received information from users that they are unable to access YouTube in Pakistan and Bangladesh." It added that it had checked its networks and found no problems, but it didn't comment further.

Last week, the U.S. ambassador to Libya  and three colleagues were killed in an attack, with U.S., British and German embassies in other countries also among the targets of riots.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai