Forget the Great Firewall of China for a while and give way to the star of the moment – Pakistan. According to BBC News, the near global blackout experienced by YouTube yesterday was traced to Pakistan Telecom and ISP PCCW.

It turned out the government of Pakistan wants to restrict YouTube access country-wide because of numerous contents deemed offensive to Islam. Some say it was triggered by videos of Danish cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad while others blamed the offensive-to-Islam trailer from a film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders provoked the government.

To implement the ban, Pakistan Telecom “hijacked” the web server address of YouTube but this was accidentally leaked out to other Internet service providers around the globe thereby causing that annoying two-hour blackout. To be specific, the official cause is “erroneous internet protocols.”

According to YouTube, its engineers are currently working with different Internet communities to prevent such blackout from happening again.

Related posts:

1. Pakistan loves YouTube again
2. Fitna website suspended
3. Network Solutions suspends anti-Islamist film web site– ComputerWorld
4. Only 2.12 percent people use Internet in Pakistan
5. YouTube ban lifted in Thailand