Suppressing political criticism behind Pak ban of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube: Google CEO

San Francisco (US), May 22 (ANI): Google chief executive Eric Schmidt on Friday said he suspects suppressing political criticism is a factor behind the move to block YouTube and Facebook in Pakistan in the name of Islam.

"I'm always suspicious of these broad bans," the Dawn quoted Schmidt as telling a gathering at non-profit public policy institute New America Foundation, of which he is chairman of the board.

"In every case we looked at, there is an official reason then another reason. There is an awful lot of political criticism they are blocking at the same time. I am very suspicious here."

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) banned access to Facebook, YouTube and more than 450 links, including restricted access to Wikipedia in view of what it called "growing sacrilegious content".

A Facebook page that fueled rage and protest in Pakistan was gone from the popular online social networking service on Friday but the popular social networking service said it remained blocked in that country. (ANI)