Rehman Malik threatens to shutdown Google, YouTube

Sep 17, 2011 |

Islamabad

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Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Saturday warned that popular websites like Google and YouTube could be shut down in Pakistan if they did not cooperate with authorities investigating crimes and incidents of terrorism.

Malik made the remarks while interacting with reporters at the headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency in Islamabad. He urged the websites to extend help to authorities in order to exterminate terrorism from the country.

The government would be compelled to block certain websites, including Google and YouTube, if they did not extend cooperation to authorities, Malik said. The Taliban and other terrorist organisations were sharing intelligence through the Internet and it is imperative to curb these activities, he said.

Malik did not give details of the crimes and incidents of terrorism that the websites could provide information about. TV news channels also quoted Malik as saying that he had issued an order for a case to be registered against the administrator of Google Pakistan.

The minister has faced criticism and ridicule from civil society and rights groups for several of his recent comments.

Malik had recently claimed that jealous girlfriends and wives, and not political groups or criminals, were responsible for a majority of target killings in the southern port city of Karachi.

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