YouTube is running in Pakistan on Android Smartphones

There is no sure shot way of blocking YouTube in Pakistan as the website works fine on the Android phones in Pakistan. As you can see in the below video that PTA Chairman and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar also admitted that there is no full proof way of blocking YouTube. Reason is that the Android OS and YouTube belong to same parent company, Google. Protocols used by Google in its mobile OS makes it entirely impossible for Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block largest video sharing website in Pakistan. Although non-android phones like blackberry and Nokia smartphones would still not be able to play YouTube but as we know users of these phones are far less in numbers thanks to local brands. Right now out of total phone users in Pakistan, 12% is smartphone users and out of them 95% are android smartphone user. With introduction of 3G, number of smartphones will skyrocket and so more and more people will be able to access it. A government official, who didn’t want to be named, accepted the fact that YouTube is accessible in Pakistan on Android smartphones and they can’t filter it completely. He also said that as the matter of YouTube ban is in court so government can’t do anything about it. Once a decision comes, government will be in a better position to decide. On various occasions and forums, government and PTA has admitted that they cannot filter out such a mammoth entity from cyber space of the country. Last night Ishaq Dar also mentioned that as matter is sub-judice in Lahore High Court, so they can’t take any action for restoring of YouTube. With 3G licenses sold out to all the 4 bidding telecom companies and with faster internet, it seems that soon this YouTube ban is going to lose its worth, thanks to majority of smartphone being Android. Only blocking this website on computers will also be futile now as almost all the internet users are using proxies to access the website.