Google may localize YouTube in Pakistan - a move that may enable the users to access the video sharing website in the country, a media report said on Wednesday.
A report in the leading daily Dawn said if certain conditions of the Google management are met, YouTube will be accessible in Pakistan as YouTube.com.pk.
YouTube has been blocked in Pakistan since 2012 by the Inter-Ministerial Committee, Dawn reported.
The government has succeeded in convincing Google about the religious sensitivities of the Pakistanis, said Anusha Rehman, the minister of state for information technology and telecommunications, on Tuesday.
The local search engine will also make it easier to block any blasphemous or objectionable content, she told Dawn.
Google management would do so only after the government met some of its conditions, said the minister.
"Management of Google/YouTube has shown its willingness to localize YouTube in Pakistan provided they will not be held responsible if blasphemous content is placed and uploaded on its website," the minister told the Senate Standing Committee.
Localizing YouTube would also mean that Google would not be violating its own company law of hindering freedom of expression, the state minister explained.
"The web service will not be held responsible for blasphemous content uploaded on its sites as that will be a personal action of the individual," she told the committee.
"The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is finalizing a draft ordinance which will be processed by the ministry for enactment as law," she told Dawn.
"Saudi Arabia and Malaysia have also reached a similar arrangement with Google," the daily quoted her as saying.
Breaking the news to members of the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunications, Anusha Rehman explained that once YouTube was localized, blocking objectionable content would be easier.
"Instead of installing costly filtration mechanisms, Google will easily be able to block blasphemous content on the request of the Pakistan government," she said.
© 2025 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
