Ghazi Muhammad Abdullah, a fifteen year old school boy, has sent a list of 780,000 adult websites which he thinks should be blocked in accordance with Supreme Court’s orders but are still accessible to general internet users in Pakistan.
Abdullah told me that he has sent this list to PTA only because authority had asked him for a list of adult websites. He quotes an authority letter sent to him by Director General, Law and Regulations, as saying:
If there is any specific website that you wish to bring into the knowledge of PTA, it is requested that PTA may be informed of the same accordingly for further necessary action at our end.
Earlier, Abdullah had written letters to PTA, Ministry of Information Technology and Chief Justice of Pakistan to get adult websites blocked in Pakistan. After his repeated requests, and hack attempts on PTA and Supreme Court website PTA decided in principle to ban adult websites in Pakistan and issued directive for ISPs to block access to adult websites.
It was recently revealed that Pakistan ISPs have blocked 13,000 adult websites, while there are more still accessible, according to Abdullah.
Without detailing the criteria or selection process of adult websites, Abdullah, in an email, told me that he prepared this list of 780,000 adult websites with help of friends having expertise in computers. He wished not to disclose their names.
It merits mentioning here that Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan is willing to block access to any number of websites, though they have concerns regarding the overhead involved in process. This is why they are advocating proposed national URL filtering system.
