Youtube goes local in Pakistan, will deliver country specific popular content

Google has introduced the local version of famous video platform YouTube in Pakistan. This recent development can led to a common ground between our government and Google officials for filtering out the controversial content and let the whole platform stay accessible in Pakistan.

Local version of YouTube is not something new, YouTube’s local version has been accessible in many countries with some times translations in native languages too. YouTube’s local version will also present country specific popular content on home page. So, whatever the most watched content may be, it will surface on top for other viewers to watch it too.

“We aim to provide an even more tailored YouTube experience by launching versions that are optimised for Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. We also hope that this will pave the way for the work of local creators, personalities, and musicians to shine on the world’s largest and most vibrant video community,” said a Google spokesperson.

We reported earlier in December 2015 that YouTube was accessible for PTCL users, ever since users have been using YouTube without any proxy or VPN. At the time of writing this, we have access to YouTube without any issue but the controversial content is accessible on local version of website.

In September, we told our readers that our government is in talks to introduce a local version of YouTube with all the filters applied. Last year, PTA put forth a report that in order to filter the data from YouTube, a hefty amount of 3 Billion PKR would be needed and government was not ready to invest such a huge amount in installing the filters.

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The recent development suggests that former option is being explored. Google officials recently visited Pakistan and one of the hot topics discussed at that time was removing the ban on YouTube.