Pakistan Unblocks and Reblocks YouTube, Just Long Enough to Watch “One Pound Fish”

Internet providers in Pakistan were ordered to allow access to YouTube on Saturday after three months of blockage, but later the same day were told to block it again.

Reports of the actual amount of time YouTube was available in Pakistan range from just three minutes to three hours.

It seems that different factions within the Pakistan government failed to coordinate their plans, as Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced from his Twitter account that the site would be reopened, while Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf ordered ISPs to block the site again, after it became apparent that the controversial film “Innocence of Muslims” was still viewable.

Among many reasons to want to watch videos on YouTube, in Pakistan one of the most pressing is to see the viral sensation Muhammad Shahid Nazir, a Pakistani fishmonger in London, whose “One Pound Fish” song went went viral after someone filmed him in the market and posted it on YouTube. The original has 7.6 million views, and a music video version starring Nazir from Warner Music Group has more than 10 million views since being released earlier this month.

Here’s the music video: