ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's telecoms regulator has lifted restrictions on YouTube that led to the knocking out of access to the video-sharing website in many other countries over the weekend.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ordered 70 domestic Internet service providers to restore access to the site after removal of what government officials had deemed a "blasphemous'' video clip.
Pakistan ordered YouTube blocked last Friday over a clip featuring a Dutch legislator who plans to release a movie portraying Islam as fascist and prone to inciting violence.
As a result, most of the world's Internet users lost access to YouTube for several hours on Sunday.
An Internet expert says the problems came after a Pakistani telecommunications company complied with the block by directing requests for YouTube videos to a "black hole.''
The company had accidentally identified itself to Internet computers as the world's fastest route to YouTube, channelling requests from across the Internet to the black hole.