LAHORE, Pakistan — Pakistani protesters shouted "Death to Facebook", "Death to America" and burnt US flags on Friday, venting growing anger over "sacrilegious" caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on the Internet.
A Facebook user organised an "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day" competition to promote "freedom of expression", inspired by an American woman cartoonist, but sparked a major backlash in the conservative Muslim country of 170 million.
Islam strictly prohibits the depiction of any prophet as blasphemous and the row has sparked comparison with protests across the Muslim world over the publication of satirical cartoons of Mohammed in European newspapers in 2006.
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".
PTA released a toll-free telephone number and email address, and has acted on complaints received by the regulator.
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