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Indonesia Gives Up on YouTube Ban
Sunday, April 13, 2008
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian Internet providers have stopped blocking YouTube and other file-sharing Web sites showing an anti-Islam film made by a Dutch politician after complaints from Web users.
The online service providers said Friday they will instead try to block access to individual pages on the sites carrying Geert Wilders' short film.
"It is like removing cancer from the body without making the patient die," Information and Communication Minister Mohammad Nuh told reporters.
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On Tuesday, the government in the world's most populous Muslim nation ordered Internet service providers to block YouTube, MySpace and other sites, but savvy surfers had little trouble circumventing the ban.
In an editorial, The Jakarta Post newspaper said the ban "sent a disturbing sign that the president and his advisers are not only dumb, but also dangerous. It shows a mind-set that takes us back a decade to the era of censorship."
Wilders' film intersperses scenes of recent terror attacks with verses from the Koran, Islam's holy book, and speeches from Islamic extremists calling for attacks on non-Muslims.
The film has been condemned as racist and misleading by governments around the world.
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