It could have been completely accidental but Pakistan Telecom, in trying to comply with a Pakistan government censorship order, hijacked part of Youtube’s internet routing last night.

Renesys blog tells us:

Just before 18:48 UTC, Pakistan Telecom, in response to government order to block access to YouTube  started advertising a route for 208.65.153.0/24 to its provider, PCCW (AS 3491).

This action began due to a Pakistan government edict that access to Youtube should be blocked within Pakistan due to content related to the Danish cartoons featuring pictoral representations of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

The effects lasted outside of Pakistan for about half an hour but quickly raised questions as to whether Pakistan Telecom should be trusted to advertise routes and whether countries and telecoms companies who use such methods for censorship are a risk to the internet in general.

You can read more about how Pakistan Telecom managed to break global routing for everyone else on Renesys site.