Twitter restores access to tweets in Pakistan

Social networking site Twitter has restored access to dozens of accounts and specific tweets that it had made unavailable in Pakistan in the wake of some being dubbed as "blasphemous" and "unethical."

Twitter had blocked some tweets last month acting on complaints from the country's telecoms authority of "blasphemous" and "unethical" content, with several of these mocking Islam.

However the authorities have not followed up the social network's initial requests with further documentation, allowing Twitter to drop the ban. The web site, however, still bans some material elsewhere.

Twitter's moves were first published in `Chilling Effects', a web site that keeps track of cease-and-desist demands sent to internet-based organisations.

"On May 18, 2014, we made an initial decision to withhold content in Pakistan based on information provided to us by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority," the web site quoted Twitter as saying.

"Consistent with our longstanding policies we provided notice to all of the affected account holders and published the actioned takedown requests on Chilling Effects to maximise transparency regarding our decision.

"We have re-examined the requests and, in the absence of additional clarifying information from Pakistani authorities, have determined that restoration of the previously withheld content is warranted."

Pakistan briefly blocked access to Twitter in 2012 after complaints about anti-Islamic content.

Twitter received five batches of complaints from Pakistan in May, according to the information provided to Chilling Effects.

These included among others requests to block accounts dedicated to posting anti-Islamic comments, accounts sharing drawings of the Prophet Muhammad - such images are forbidden by many Islamic leaders, tweets showing photos of the Koran being burned, an Arabic-language-based account that urges Muslims to become atheists and accounts used by three North American porn actresses.

Some of the accounts involved have since been suspended across the whole of Twitter, but the majority of the material is still online.

While Twitter has dropped its Pakistan-imposed blocks, other country-specific bans remain in place, including restrictions in Germany on a neo-Nazi account, a ban in France against a series of homophobic tweets, censorship in India of claims that a soft drinks company had distributed contaminated products.

Twitter introduced the ability to selectively block tweets on a country-by-country basis in 2012, a move that has been criticised by freedom-of-speech organisations, including Reporters Without Borders at that time.