Pakistan orders temporary social media shutdown amid anti-France protests

According to a news report, the government of Pakistan has blocked various social media platforms in the country after days of anti-French protests in the country by radical Islamists who opposed cartoons considered to be blasphemous. According to the report, the sites blocked on the orders of the country’s interior ministry included Twitter and Facebook. The present action comes as the police prepare to clear a large crowd of demonstrators in the eastern city of Lahore. Meanwhile internet users have criticized the move by the Pakistan government as smacking of dictatorship and trampling on freedom of expression.