NEW DELHI (TIP): Apprehending disturbances over a controversial anti-Islam movie that sparked massive anti- US protests in Libya, Egypt and Yemen, the government on September 13 asked Google to block 11 URLs of the popular video site YouTube containing objectionable excerpts from the film.

The US-based Google, which owns YouTube, is likely to ban these URLs soon. “A request to Google was made acting on the request of the Jammu & Kashmir government which forwarded a court order for getting those web pages removed as soon as possible,” said a home ministry official. He said the request had been sent by the department of telecommunication through the director general of Computer Emergency Response Team India (CERT-In) for immediate action.

As reports came in of Afghanistan and Pakistan also blocking access to these sites, Google in a statement said, “We work hard to create a community everyone can enjoy and which also enables people to express different opinions. This can be a challenge because what’s OK in one country can be offensive elsewhere. This video — which is widely available on the Web — is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube. However, given the very difficult situation in Libya and Egypt we have temporarily restricted access in both countries.” Government has already beefed up security at the US embassy and four of its consulates — Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad. The five US diplomatic missions are being provided round-the-clock security