In today’s censorship news, Pakistan has blocked Twitter due to the social sharing network’s refusal to remove tweets that are offensive to Islam.

The tweets in question were actually promoting a competition on Facebook that involved posting images of Islam’s prophet Mohammad. Apparently Facebook said they were willing to cooperate with Pakistan, but Twitter did not respond as cooperatively when approached by Mohammad Yaseen, chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority.

“We have been negotiating with them until last night, but they did not agree to remove the stuff, so we had to block it,” said Yaseen.

Instructions to block the site came from Pakistan’s Ministry of Information Technology, said Yaseen.

“The ministry officials are still trying to make them (Twitter) agree, and once they remove that stuff, the site will be unblocked,” said Yaseen.

It’s unlikely we’ll see another Arab Spring over this (unless it drags on), but it’s important to note the level of censorship that some parts of the world still see.

UPDATE: It seems Pakistan has already restored Twitter access.

Tags: Censorship, Facebook, Islam, Mohammed Yaseen, Pakistan, Religion, Twitter