YouTube Returns to Pakistan.

On the recommendation of PTA, Government of Pakistan has allowed access to recently launched country version of video sharing site, YouTube for Internet users in Pakistan.
YouTube is now officially backed in Pakistan, following the launch of a localized version of the site last week.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd posted on its Facebook page on Monday: "Welcome Back YouTube".

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Pakistan's ban on YouTube was imposed by the Supreme Court back in 2012 after an offensive anti-Islam film, Innocence of Muslims was uploaded.

More than a dozen people died in protests in Pakistan.

Many young Pakistanis have welcomed the lifting of the ban. Still, some protesters want details of the deal with Google.They say there should be greater transparency of the terms agreed between Google and the government.

PTA said the ban was no longer necessary because Google, which owns YouTube, had now launched a local Country version.

Now with the localized version, the PTA has a more direct line of access to Google to deal with offensive content.

A Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) official confirmed to the BBC that all internet service providers had been directed to open access to YouTube.

In its announcement this morning, the PTA noted, "Google has provided an online web process through which requests for blocking access of the offending material can be made by PTA to Google directly and Google/YouTube will accordingly restrict access to the said offending material for users within Pakistan."

"Google/YouTube will accordingly restrict access to the said offending material for users within Pakistan."

However, a YouTube spokeswoman said government requests for the removal of content would not automatically be granted.
"We have clear community guidelines, and when videos violate those rules, we remove them," she said.

"In addition, where we have launched YouTube locally and we are notified that a video is illegal in that country, we may restrict access to it after a thorough review."

She said requests by governments for content to be removed would be recorded in YouTube's Transparency Report.

Just like the new localized YouTube sites in Nepal and Sri Lanka, Pakistan's site will also highlight media from local artists. While it's a shame Pakistan's citizens won't have access to everything YouTube offers, a slightly slimmed down version is probably better than nothing. Don't be surprised if Google repeats this strategy in other countries -- it might just be the way way the company brings YouTube back to China.