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Pakistan court orders Facebook ban to be lifted

A Pakistani court ordered the government to lift a ban on Facebook Inc., the world's No. 1 social networking service, 12 days after it blocked access to the website, according to a lawyer.

"Facebook assured the court no blasphemous material will be available to users in Pakistan," Chaudhry Zulfiqar, the lawyer who asked the court to block Facebook on May 19, said by telephone from Lahore today. Palo Alto, California-based Facebook's corporate communications department didn't immediately respond to an e-mailed enquiry.

The Lahore High Court ordered the ban on Facebook on May 20 and blocked Google Inc.'s YouTube video service a day later. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority also blocked 450 Web links for carrying objectionable material.

The ban began after a Facebook user started a competition asking participants to draw sketches of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. Creating images of the Prophet is prohibited in Islam.

Managers at Facebook had corresponded with U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke, Zulfiqar said, without providing details of the correspondence.

"The U.S. government has nothing to do with the issue which is between Facebook and the Pakistan government," Richard Snelsire, spokesman at the U.S. consulate in Islamabad, said by telephone.

Calls to Holbrooke's office weren't immediately answered on a public holiday in Washington.

The Lahore High court lifted its ban on YouTube on May 27.

A further hearing is scheduled for June 15.

(Published by Bloomberg – May 31, 2010)