Millions of YouTube fans around the globe lost access to the video sharing site that has come to define new media. But the blame could not be laid at the feet of the site's rivals; instead, Sunday's outage was blamed on the Pakistani government, which attempted to block the site because of offensive content.
According to a Washington Post report, YouTube, which was only to be shut down in Pakistan, became a worldwide casualty when a local telecom company charged with muzzling the site inadvertently identified itself as the fastest route to YouTube. The result was that all traffic -- as opposed to just Pakistani traffic -- was sent to a "black hole."
Pakistani officials ordered the site closed in Pakistan citing concerns over anti-Islamic videos.
YouTube was able to restore access to the site within a few hours, and the company released a statement saying that it is working on preventing similar outages in the future.
