On Sunday, the citizens of Pakistan were unable to access Twitter, thanks to a ban of the social networking service ordered by that country"s government. Now Reuters reports that Twitter is available again inside Pakistan as the government has lifted that ban, about 12 hours after it was put in place.
Previous reports claimed that the ban was order because Twitter allegedly refused to remove images that promoted a contest consisting of images of Islam"s Prophet Muhammad. The religion of Islam considers any depiction of Muhammad as blasphemous.
The Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan was allegedly told by the country"s government to block access to Twitter indefinitely on Sunday. However, one of the country"s government officially apparently stepped in to convince Pakistan"s prime minister to restore Twitter access to the country.
In his own Twitter message, Pakistan"s Interior Minister Rehman Malik stated, "Dear All yes I spoke to PM and informed how people are feeling about it. PM ordered to reopen the twitter."
Pakistan previously blocked access to another social networking site, Facebook, for almost two weeks in May 2010. About 1,000 other sites have been banned in the past for carrying what the country called blasphemous content, include YouTube.