ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan lifted the ban on Wikipedia before dawn Tuesday after the country’s media regulator blocked the site last week for failing to remove allegedly blasphemous content, saying it hurts the emotions of Muslims.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif ordered the publication late Monday, according to a government statement. The site was blocked on Friday by Pakistan’s Telecommunications Authority, after Pakistan’s deadline for removing questionable content expired.
As anger grew, Pakistan’s Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Monday that Sharif’s five-member committee had investigated and ordered the prompt recovery of Wikipedia services.
The government did not provide any explanation or main points about what content it considered anti-Islamic, and the media regulator never explained what content was intended to harm Muslim emotions in Pakistan.
Under Pakistan’s questionable blasphemy laws, anyone convicted of insulting Islam or its personalities can be sentenced to death, the country has yet to implement the death penalty for blasphemy.
But even accusations of offense are enough to galvanize mob violence and even fatal attacks. International and national rights teams say blasphemy fees have been used to intimidate devout minorities and settle private scores.
The Wikimedia Foundation welcomed the lifting of the ban. He said the lifting of the ban “means that the other people of Pakistan can continue to make profits and participate” in expanding a global movement “to spread and verified, reliable percentage and loose knowledge. “
In the past, Pakistan briefly banned TikTok twice for uploading immoral content. In addition, in 2008, Pakistan banned YouTube for videos showing the Prophet Muhammad, prompting angry protests across the country because Muslims blasphemed any physical depiction of the prophet.
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