Pakistan officially rescinds YouTube ban

The Pakistani government recently placed a ban on the popular video sharing site YouTube after Pakistani Muslims complained of an offensive video.   The controversy began after a Dutch politician announced he would be releasing a movie critical of Islam, and video of his remarks made it onto YouTube. Fearing a reaction similar to the anti-Western riots following a controversial Dutch cartoon in 2006, officials reacted by placing a block on the site.

Unfortunately for many users, this ban led to a blackout in other areas of the globe. One Pakistani Internet provider also services computers worldwide, causing a YouTube outage.  The Associated Press is reporting that an agreement has been reached in which the offending video was removed, and access to the site was restored for Pakistani Internet users.