Pakistan has been planning to implement a national level URL-blocking technology. The idea was to filter out “blasphemous, un-Islamic, offensive, objectionable and immoral material.” Needless to say, like most laws like this, who’d be defining these terms was left up in the air.
And — SURPRISE! — tech companies were eager to help Pakistan build this firewall. Among the companies bidding, although exactly who has been kept under wraps, were several American companies. Capitalism!
To Pakistani citizens, apparently taking away porn was OK, but that Americans, or foreigners in general, might be the ones building the filter was absolutely unacceptable. And now the plan is scrapped.
So, uh, U-S-A? Sorta?
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