Facebook and YouTube Banned in Kashmir

The State Government of Jammu Kashmir has issued orders to the internet service providers to ban Youtube and Facebook in the state.

This move is believed to be in response to the protests against the controversial anti-Islam video on YouTube.

It was previously reported that the certain URLs with offensive content had been blocked, but it now seems that access to the entire websites have been restricted.

According to IBNLive.com, the order was issued late last month by the state Home Department, invoking the powers conferred under section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885. With regard to the video, the order stated.

In the interest of public safety and for maintaining public order, the government directed all licensed Telecom Service Providers and Internet Service Providers to make arrangements to ensure that their subscribers in Jammu and Kashmir should not be able to download or upload the contents

It further reads,

If necessary, due to technical reasons, the Fully Qualified Domain Names shall be blocked viz. www.youtube.com, www.facebook.com, etc,

The Government of India has asked private telecom operators in Jammu and Kashmir to provide at the earliest a mechanism for fool-proof monitoring of real-time Internet traffic in the state.

However,  Minister for Information and Technology, Aga Rahullah has said there is no ban on Facebook and Youtube.  Rahullah said

There is not any ban on these websites. I don't have any proper information of it. I can't confirm whether there is any technical snag in it.

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