Bangladesh has blocked YouTube after the video-sharing website failed to take down an anti-Islam film that has sparked furious protests across the Muslim world, government officials said on Tuesday.
The country’s telecommunications regulator blocked the website “to prevent violence and social disorder over the derogatory video”, its acting chairman Giashuddin Ahmed told reporters.
“On Sunday we wrote to (site owner) Google to remove the video clip from YouTube. We told them that it could incite violence, but they have not done so,” he said.
“Yesterday we told our officials to block YouTube. The site has been blocked since Monday night,” he added.
Google, which has barred access to the video in Egypt, India, Indonesia, Libya and Malaysia, was not immediately available for comment.
The film entitled “Innocence of Muslims”, believed to have been produced by a small group of extremist Christians, has sparked a week of furious protests outside US embassies and other American symbols in several countries.
