[Style Mantra]

Just before Darren Waters broke the story about YouTube's outage last night, I was fielding calls from friends questioning my technical competence. I had posted a video of a recent ski-ing holiday on YouTube, and emailed the link to my fellow skiers - only to hear from them that the video just wouldn't play.

Computer screen showing YouTubeSo I was rather relieved to discover that it was a global outage - rather than my incompetence - which was frustrating my friends and millions of other YouTube users. At first Google told me it was unlikely to have anything to do with Pakistan, or the row over alleged anti-Islamic material on the site.

But by this morning YouTube's owners had decided otherwise - and released this statement:

"For about two hours, traffic to YouTube was routed according to erroneous Internet Protocols, and many users around the world could not access our site. We have determined that the source of these events was a network in Pakistan. We are investigating and working with others in the internet community to prevent this from happening again."

Hmmmm - well I'm not sure that makes it a lot clearer. But here is how a spokesman from the London Internet Exchange - which handles huge amounts of internet traffic - explained it to me, with great patience.

So the Pakistani authorities order the country's ISPs to block access to YouTube. That is done by the country's telecoms provider sending out what is, in effect, a new - and false - route to get to YouTube. The result is that any traffic from Pakistani users to YouTube gets directed into a cul-de-sac. So far, so normal, for any country - China, Turkey, Iran - which decides to control its population's access to certain websites.

But what appears to have happened in this case is that the dodgy route map somehow leaked beyond Pakistan's borders, and was adopted by the giant Asian telecoms business PCCW. Once it started broadcasting this new way to find YouTube, the rest of the world's ISPs altered their maps, sending everyone up the wrong road.

Which all raises some interesting issues. The internet is an open self-correcting mechanism which runs on trust - if someone announces a new route to YouTube, others will take it as read that they are acting in good faith.

What we need to know now is whether this was a mistake or a deliberate attempt by Pakistan to disrupt YouTube beyond its own borders. Google still isn't sure - but it must now be aware that it and other global businesses are vulnerable to attacks from hostile governments.

A decade ago it was widely assumed that the internet would defeat attempts by governments to control freedom of speech and thought. But in this latest encounter the score looks like Government 1 - Internet 0.

[Style Mantra]

Pakistan's attempts to block access to YouTube have been blamed for a near global blackout of the site on Sunday.

Google, the owner of YouTube, blamed the outage on "erroneous internet protocols", sourced in Pakistan

BBC News has learned that the nearly two-hour long blackout was almost certainly connected to Pakistan Telecom and internet service provider PCCW.

The country ordered ISPs to block the video-sharing website because of content deemed offensive to Islam.

The BBC News website's technology editor, Darren Waters, says that to block Pakistan's citizens from accessing YouTube it is believed Pakistan Telecom "hijacked" the web server address of the popular video site.


Rory Cellan-Jones
What we need to know now is whether this was a mistake or a deliberate attempt by Pakistan to disrupt YouTube
Rory Cellan-Jones

Read more on Rory's blog
Those details were then passed on to the country's internet service providers so that anyone in Pakistan attempting to go to YouTube was instead re-directed to a different address.

But the details of the "hijack" were leaked out into the wider internet from PCCW and as a result YouTube was mistakenly blocked by internet service providers around the world.

The block on the servers was lifted once PCCW had been told of the issue by engineers at YouTube.

A statement from Google said that the problems lasted for "about two hours".

"Traffic to YouTube was routed according to erroneous internet protocols, and many users around the world could not access our site," it said.

Users are quite upset. They're screaming at ISPs which can't do anything
Wahaj-us-Siraj, convener of the Association of Pakistan Internet Service Providers

"We have determined that the source of these events was a network in Pakistan. We are investigating and working with others in the internet community to prevent this from happening again."

PCCW said it was aware of the occurrence and was "reviewing the event with the appropriate internal and external parties."

A leading net professional told BBC News: "This was probably a simple mistake by an engineer at Pakistan Telecom. There's nothing to suggest this was malicious."

IP hijacking involves taking over a web site's unique address by corrupting the internet's routing tables, which direct the flow of data around the world.

Cause of ban

Reports said Pakistan made the move because YouTube content included Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that have outraged many.

But one report said a trailer for a forthcoming film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, which portrays Islam in a negative light, was behind the ban.

"They [Pakistan's telecommunications authority] asked us to ban it immediately... and the order says the ban will continue until further notice," said Wahaj-us-Siraj, convener of the Association of Pakistan Internet Service Providers.

The government decision has caused uproar in Pakistan, according to Wahaj-us-Siraj:

"Users are quite upset. They're screaming at ISPs which can't do anything.

"The government has valid reason for that, but they have to find a better way of doing it. If we continue blocking popular websites, people will stop using the internet."

Other countries that have temporarily blocked access to YouTube include Turkey and Thailand.

[Style Mantra]

A few friends have alerted me to a possible outage at YouTube. I certainly can't get on to the service.

According to some, YouTube has been down for more than an hour....

I'll be keeping an eye on it from my Twitter account. Follow me here.

I've been using Tweetscan to look for people's comments about YouTube on Twitter. A very cool web app. Look here.

Lots of people on Twitter are linking Pakistan's decision to block YouTube with the current - seemingly global - outage. I'd be surprised if there was a link as the net doesn't work that way...

UPDATE: I've contacted a Google PR in London who says the service is working for him but is checking on the issue. There are mixed reports - some are saying it is back, others not.

UPDATE TWO: David Ulevitch of OpenDNS believes that "Pakistan Telecom has decided to (accidentally probably) hijack their IP address space".

UPDATE THREE: I'm just writing a news story on this. Looks like Pakistan's attempts to hijack the YouTube IP addresses internally led to ISPs blocking the site globally.

UPDATE FOUR: There will definitely be some fall out from this. It would seem that all it takes to hijack a website globally is for a telecoms firm to instruct its ISPs that they now run a domain, and for one of those ISPs to announce that globally. So that other ISPs follow suit in a piggyback chain of confusion.

As one net engineer told me:


It is exactly like the "game of telephone" that kids play. For example, Pakistan Telecom says "I am responsible for 1.2.3.4 (some IP address)" and then they tell PCCW. PCCW tells Verizon Business and NTT and others. NTT tells us and so when my customers ask "Where is Youtube, we're just answering based on what we've heard..." But all we know is that we heard it from NTT who heard it from PCCW who heard it from Pakistan Telecom. If Pakistan Telecom was lying (or made a mistake), we'd have no way to verify it.

[Style Mantra]

BBC NEWS-Updates !!!

[$herry]

Ye loo ..... mai ainwee pareshan ho raha tha k admin ne YT ki service mere system per to band to nahi kar di.

btw very bad news, it should resolve soon. warna ham gaey kaam se

[Style Mantra]

Originally Posted by $herry

Ye loo ..... mai ainwee pareshan ho raha tha k admin ne YT ki service mere system per to band to nahi kar di.

btw very bad news, it should resolve soon. warna ham gaey kaam se

hmm youtube ko ban us k andar anti-Islamic material ki wajah se kiya gaya hai...isliyai me ko nahi lagta k woh unban ho g itni jaldi...

[Kool Guy]

Youtube is working fine now

[Desert_ Rules]

aj ki news hai ... youtube ko pakistan main block kr dya gaya tha, aur us k foran bad youtube 2 hours k lie puri duniya main block raha.. after deleting those stupid videos and pictures stuff... fir se online ho gaya tha, and now youtube pakistan main available hai under PTE lawz

[Style Mantra]

Hmm confirmed !!!

[Style Mantra]

Net hardware changes led to YouTube traffic hitting a dead end
Pakistan has rejected claims that it was responsible for blocking global access to the YouTube video clip site.

YouTube was hard to reach this week following action by Pakistan to block access inside its borders for its hosting of a "blasphemous" video clip.

Analysis suggests the block was taken up by net hardware that routes data effectively cutting off the site.

But a spokeswoman for Pakistan's telecoms authority said the problem was caused by a "malfunction" elsewhere.

Dead end

"We are not hackers. Why would we do that?" Shahzada Alam Malik, head of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), told the AP news service.

The Peshawar office of the PTA issued a blocking order for YouTube last week in a bid to block access to a video clip the Pakistani government regarded as "very blasphemous".

Analysis by net monitoring firm Renesys shows that the problems getting through to YouTube began as a result of the action taken by Pakistan Telecom to implement the block.

Essentially, Pakistan Telecom took over some of the net addresses assigned to YouTube.

Crucially the path it offered to this group of addresses was faster than the usual one used by the hardware, or routers, that speed traffic around the internet.

Pakistan Telecom let this address change propagate to the routers of one of its partners - PCCW.

Routers are constantly in search of faster ways to get the data passing through them to its destination so news about this faster path started propagating across many of the net's routers.

However, because Pakistan Telecom was stopping the traffic reaching YouTube all the data reached a dead end.

"While it is hard to describe exactly how widely this hijacked prefix was seen, we estimate that it was seen by a bit more than two-thirds of the internet," wrote Martin Brown of Renesys in a company blog post analysing the sequence of events.

The problems getting through to YouTube were most severe for two hours on Sunday but the problem was cleared up soon after.

Access to YouTube was restored in Pakistan on Tuesday when the video clip was removed.

[Style Mantra]

Turkey and Thailand have in the past also banned access to the site
Pakistan's telecoms regulator has lifted the restrictions it imposed on video-sharing website YouTube.

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority has told internet service providers (ISPs) to restore access to the site, according to a spokeswoman.

Google, the owner of YouTube, confirmed service had been restored in Pakistan.

The attempt to block the site, reportedly because of a "blasphemous" video clip, caused a near global blackout of the site on Sunday.

A spokesman for YouTube told the BBC News website: "We are pleased to confirm that YouTube is again accessible in Pakistan."

It is reported that a trailer for a forthcoming film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, which portrays Islam in a negative light, was behind the restrictions.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Using religious beliefs as a reason to block websites is completely unacceptable

John, UK
Send us your comments

The ban was instigated by Pakistan on Friday. At the time, the BBC News website's technology editor, Darren Waters, said that to block citizens from accessing YouTube it was believed Pakistan Telecom "hijacked" the web server address of the popular video site.

Those details were then passed on to the country's internet service providers so that anyone in Pakistan attempting to go to YouTube was instead re-directed to a different address.

But the details of the "hijack" were leaked out into the wider internet by Hong-Kong based provider PCCW and as a result YouTube was mistakenly blocked by other ISPs around the world.


Rory Cellan-Jones
The fact YouTube is back in action makes me revise my thoughts on the clash between governments and freedom of speech
Rory Cellan-Jones

Read Rory's blog

The block on the servers was lifted once PCCW had been told of the issue by YouTube engineers.

A statement from Google said that the problems lasted for "about two hours".

"Traffic to YouTube was routed according to erroneous internet protocols, and many users around the world could not access our site," it said.

A leading net professional told BBC News: "This was probably a simple mistake by an engineer at Pakistan Telecom. There's nothing to suggest this was malicious."

IP hijacking involves taking over a web site's unique address by corrupting the internet's routing tables, which direct the flow of data around the world.

Other countries that have temporarily blocked access to YouTube include Turkey and Thailand.

[Skywalker]

Thanks a lot
for sharing ...

[La Ha$!L]

KOnsi pic and videoooos?? itna lamba lamba likhtay Ho

[Style Mantra]

Hmm yeh bbc news ki report hai maine nahi likha janab...aur yeh nahi bataya gaya kaunsi bas yehi kaha gaya hai k anti-Islamic thi koi...