Instagram appears to be blocked in Pakistan, uproar hits Twitter (UPDATE: it’s back)

People in Pakistan are waking up to find Instagram is blocked in the country. Attempting to access Instagram.com brings up the much-hated “Surf Safely” page that reads: “The site you are trying to access contains content that is prohibited for viewership from within Pakistan.” The Instagram apps won’t refresh either. We’ve contacted Facebook’s Asia HQ for details on what’s going on in Pakistan with Instagram. (Update 30 minutes after publishing: A Facebook representative tells Tech in Asia: “We are aware of reports that people in Pakistan are having difficulty accessing Instagram and we are investigating.”)

(Update 4 hours after publishing: Instagram is now working again in Pakistan after being inaccessible for a total of about 17 hours. Local telco PTCL had earlier confirmed, “Blocking on directives of PTA. However, we r coordinating.” But now the telco says, “Instagram has been unblocked.” The original article continues below)

The apparent Instagram censorship started 13 hours ago, according to a sudden surge of messages posted to Twitter. The block is still ongoing.

This comes after YouTube was blocked in Pakistan in September 2012. YouTube remains censored in the country.

Whereas YouTube’s blockage was directly related to a controversial, US-made anti-Islamic film, it’s not clear what has motivated the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to censor Instagram – if that is indeed what has happened.

See: Pakistan ‘Startup Report’ shines a light on challenging but promising market

Instagram suffered a global two hour-outage while Asia slept, but it’s now working again.

In the meantime, a flood of angry, bemused, phlegmatic, and funny tweets are pouring forth on the subject of Instagram’s fate in Pakistan.

Now they have banned Instagram in Pakistan shame on PTA. pic.twitter.com/GQRYfR5Bsu

— kazi shahbaz (@kazishahbaz) August 29, 2014