Earlier today, comments by Supreme Court judges with regards to YouTube have caused a frenzy on social media. The comments talked about how the platform was unregulated and beyond the reach of PTA as they can merely report videos to YouTube itself but have no authority to remove the objectionable videos.

Pakistanis have been criticizing the Supreme Court for hinting at possibly banning YouTube in Pakistan

The judges of the Supreme Court were unhappy at certain videos on YouTube which talked about their families and personal lives. They said they have no issues in people questioning their credibility in terms of their work but not about their personal lives of the lives of their family. Justice Mushir Alam commented that content was controlled in various countries by the implementation of local laws.

Pakistanis have not stopped talking about this possible ban since then.

While they made no direct statements about banning the platform, these comments alone have social media up in arms about the whole situation because well… this wouldn’t be the first time that YouTube would get banned in Pakistan. YouTube was banned in Pakistan for four years, from 2012 to 2016.

Clearly, people still have flashbacks of those four terrible years when YouTube was banned before.

A lot of people are speaking up about how unproductive this move would be to simply ban, just like the ban on PUBG and Bigo Live.

https://twitter.com/MrStrik38705687/status/1285899210089431041?s=20

People talked about how hypocritical the government was for using YouTube and TikTok content creators for their own initiatives and were now turning around to block the platforms they create on.

https://twitter.com/TrimiziiiSyeda/status/1285882349620793345?s=20

YouTuber Awesamo has also slammed the YouTube ban rumors in Pakistan after these statements by the Supreme Court

YouTube Raza Samo from Khujlee Family, who goes by Awesamo on their channel, spoke up on the matter. He said that the crux of his video is that banning YouTube would be akin to destroying peoples’ dreams.

He gave the example of a university; that sometimes at university certain students might be doing drugs but one doesn’t shut down the university; you take action against the students specifically. Much like that while there are certain creators that might make content which causes panic and negative sentiments but you cannot ignore the barrage of good that has come from YouTube as well.

Awesamo shared his own life as an inspiration while speaking on the YouTube ban rumors in Pakistan

Raza gave his own example of how he used YouTube to earn money and even inspired hundreds of people to follow suit. He said he never read books and after he started doing book reviews on his channel, people would comment that they never read books but because of his videos they have been compelled to do so.

He said if those in power are so concerned about the negativity on the platform then they need to empower those making positive content instead of banning the website altogether. He mentioned that other YouTube markets internationally were much more evolved in terms of content because Pakistan had a late start due to our four year ban in the past. And the government shouldn’t make a repeat of that but work on better content.

In the end, he just made an appeal to those in power that please do not ban YouTube, it wouldn’t do anyone any good.

You can watch Raza Samo’s video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7GnlQlreWU