Pakistan saw a four year ban on YouTube from the years 2012 to 2016. The ban stunted any kind of growth for the YouTube community in the country. Creators were devoid of their platform.
Ever since rumors have been circulating after a Supreme Court Justice’s remarks about banning YouTube in Pakistan once again, young people have been pretty pissed off
Osman Khalid Butt, who is now a successful name in the mainstream media, started out as a YouTuber. He tweeted about the possible ban, saying that last time it happened he was almost finalizing a monetization deal for his channel.
Similarly, if the platform is banned again, it would hurt a lot of creators who have done everything to become successful on the platform even after having a much later start than their contemporaries around the world.
We spoke to Pakistan’s top YouTubers about the ban and how it will affect the digital industry if such a ban does happen again
One of those YouTubers is P4Pakao, originally called Nadir Ali. Nadir started creating family friend pranks related content on his YouTube years ago and is considered a top YouTuber in the country today with over three million subscribers. We talked to Nadir to get his input on this situation.
Nadir talked about how the last ban put Pakistani creators on a much bigger disadvantage already. He said that while creators across the border used those four years to establish themselves as leaders on the platform, we had a much harder time doing so. Creators in Pakistan had to work twice as hard to gain subscribers because of the four year delay.
He said him and his team of 15-20 people work very hard at producing clean family friendly comedy. Nadir Ali said that his content is proof that the audience wants clean comedy too and there isn’t another pranks channel in this part of the world that is as big as his without having to resort to adult humor. He stated that at the time when creators in Pakistan were finally gaining momentum, and need the governments support and backing to be more successful, even hearing comments like these was hurtful.
Mubeen-ul-Haq from Bekaar Films said that Supreme Court judges are from an older generation and hence didn’t understand how the internet really worked
He said that banning YouTube would cost the country millions of dollars in terms of remittance.
He said if you compared Pakistan’s YouTube to India, you can clearly see the disparity between creators because of the 4 year ban we faced. He said they should ban creators themselves and not the platform. The user determined what they would do to the platform; banning the platform is not the solution unless they want people to be merely frustrated.
Ghazenfer Jaffery from Bekaar Films said that because of Covid-19, a lot of people lost their jobs and he personally knew those who turned to content creation on YouTube for a source of income and had actually started earning through it. He said it would be very counter productive to ban YouTube at this time because Pakistanis had just started to producing great content.
Ali Gul Pir said that while he wasn’t sure if this news was authentic, he had fought against the ban before in 2012 and he would do it again
He said he didn’t understand what this government was doing, such as them banning PUBG which is a billion dollar gaming industry.
He also lamented about the warning given to TikTok by PTA, saying that people are already stuck at home and instead of letting them have these sources of entertainment the government is banning them. He also stated that the government has done next to nothing to support creators and their efforts either.
Raza Samo from Khujlee Family made an entire video about his feelings toward the issue
He said that banning the platform would be akin to shattering thousands of dreams. He further stated that it would be counterproductive and help no one.
