The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has now banned the words “lesbian,” “homosexual,” “fairy,” and “condom” among 1,600 other words the country has deemed “pornographic or offensive to Islam.”
“PTA hereby intimates all individual users of telecom services that are involved in such activity to refrain from such practices that involve generation of spamming,” the company wrote on its website. It also warned it would seek legal action against offending parties.
Other banned words have been considered surprising considering their weaker sexual innuendos: athlete’s foot, deposit, glazed donut, lotion, period, monkey crotch, tongue, Jesus Christ, Satan, “flogging the dolphin.”
Also banned is “wuutang,” MSNBC.com reported.
“It has actually embarrassed and shamed us a lot. This is outrageous,” said Shahzad Ahmad, Pakistan country director for the digital free speech advocacy, Bytes for All. “I don’t know how and why PTA had so much time [or] how much effort they have put in to compile this stupid list without realizing what kind of impact it will have on the whole communication infrastructure, which is already pretty pathetic.”
The ban is pending implementation based on mobile operators who “need further clarification” on how to implement the ban.
Pakistan previously banned Facebook in 2010 and banned YouTube in 2008, both arising from cartoon drawings of Mohammed which the country considered offensive.
