Pakistan blocked Twitter on Sunday, May 20, because the microblogging site refused to remove material considered offensive to Islam, said a top Pakistani communications official.

"The website has been banned by Ministry of Information Technology and the decision was conveyed to us. There was blasphemous material on Twitter," said Mohammad Younis Khan, a spokesman for Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), according to AFP.

The "blasphemous material" was promoting a competition on social networking site Facebook to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, said PTA chairman Mohammad Yaseen. Many Muslims consider any depiction of the prophet, even if it is favorable, as blasphemous.

Facebook Complied

According to Yaseen, Facebook complied with Pakistan's requests, but "Twitter refused to remove material related to a competition on Facebook to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad," reported the blog Dawn. "We have been negotiating with them until last night, but they did not agree to remove the stuff, so we had to block it," added Yaseen. "The ministry officials are still trying to make them agree, and once they remove that stuff, the site will be unblocked."

Just one day before the ban, as TechCrunch points out, lawmaker Rehman Malik of Pakistan's People Party tweeted that neither Facebook nor Twitter were getting blocked. "Dear all, I assure u that Twitter and FB will continue in our country and it will not be blocked. PI do not believe in rumors," Malik wrote.

Twitter Refused to Comply

After several requests from the Ministry of Information and Technology, Twitter reportedly responded that it "cannot stop any individual doing anything of this nature on the website," reported Pakistan's Express Tribune. As the requests went unfulfilled, The Ministry sent directives to block the site to ISPs in several parts of the country, including PTCL Broadband and Wi-Tribe. The publication, however, reported that Twitter was still accessible via mobile using secure browsers such as Opera, proxies, and VPNs (virtual private networks).

Twitter has been banned from Pakistan before, for the same reason. In 2010, the microblogging site was banned in the country for two weeks. Social sites such as Twitter and Facebook are still officially banned in China, though many people still manage to access them through VPNs.