Pakistan lifts restrictions on YouTube

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's telecoms regulator lifted restrictions imposed on YouTube for anti-Islamic content but rejected blame for knocking out access to the video-sharing website in many countries over the weekend.

"We are not hackers. Why would we do that?" Shahzada Alam Malik, head of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, told Associated Press Television News. YouTube's wider problem were likely caused by a "malfunction" elsewhere, he said.

The authority told Internet service providers to restore access to the site on Tuesday afternoon after removing a video featuring a Dutch lawmaker who has said he plans to release a movie portraying Islam as fascist and prone to inciting violence against women and homosexuals.

Officials have described the clip as "very blasphemous" and warned that it could fan religious fanaticism and hatred of the West in Pakistan, where the government already faces a growing Islamic insurgency.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority spokeswoman Nabiha Mahmood said attempts to access the offending clip on Tuesday afternoon brought up only a message explaining that it had been removed on ethical grounds.

She said the telecoms regulator had posted a complaint through the website — a facility open to any registered user — but had not been in contact with the administrators of YouTube.com, which is owned by Internet giant Google.

The authority aimed to restrict the site only in Pakistan.

But the move inadvertently cut access for most of the world's Internet users for up to two hours on Sunday, highlighting the vulnerability of the Internet.

YouTube said on Monday that the cut was caused by a network in Pakistan.

"We are investigating and working with others in the Internet community to prevent this from happening again," it said in an e-mailed statement.

Todd Underwood, a senior manager at Renesys Corp, a U.S. company that tracks the pathways of the Internet, said a Pakistani telecommunications company complied with the block by directing requests for YouTube videos to a "black hole."