Pakistan govt’s YouTube channel back online after temporary suspension

YouTube had briefly suspended the official account of the Government of Pakistan after it received complaints accusing the channel of copyright infringement.

The most notable complaint was from local vlogger, Irfan Junejo, known for making video content focusing on Pakistan’s picturesque regions.

Junejo, in his tweets, accused the Pakistani government of stealing his footage. The footage in question is of Naran and incorporated into a video titled ‘Family friendly activities in Pakistan’ by the government’s official YouTube channel.

When the account was taken offline, the video platform had displayed a message stating: “The YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement’. 

Later, the channel was back after the brief suspension with most notable change of credit being mentioned in description of videos.

While speaking to Geo News, Irfan said that he has always tried to promote a positive image of Pakistan.

He said that in the past he has made video guides to Naran, Khuzdar, Gwadar, Sanghar and never made any money out of it.

“It has upset me because they (the govt) tried to defend the act and they didn’t acknowledge not giving credit to me,” said Junejo.

He said no one from Press Information Department ever approached him.

“The official channel wasn’t terminated because of my claim but due to community claims for taking content without prior permission”, he further said, revealing that other similar complaints were also made against the official channel.

Junejo added that he received a screenshot in which one of the complainants said they "were sent an email asking them to take back the claim".

He added that YouTube takes complaints regarding copy rights infringement seriously.

"If we want content creators’ community and YouTubers’ community to prosper then we should take these issues seriously," he added.