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Music

Pakistani Rapper Adil Omar Is Fighting Against His Home Country's Ban on YouTube

Listen to "#KholoBC," which uses rap as a revolutionary tactic.

The internet of America is not the internet of the rest of the world. Though we take web neutrality—the idea that people can use the internet however they damn well please, whenever they want—as a given, it’s a huge issue worldwide. Last month in Istanbul, protesters rallied against a bill that would allow the government to block websites without seeking court approval as well as access browsing data. They threw stones and fireworks at authorities, and were hit with water cannons for their efforts.

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In Pakistan, many sites including adult sites and (at times) social media have been banned by the government. Perhaps the most damning ban has been the government’s stance against YouTube, which has been banned since 2012. Recently, Pakistani artists have taken matters into their own hands. Adil Omar—who’s collaborated with the likes of B-Real and Xzibit and is one of the region’s most notable rappers—has joined forces with the rapper/comedian Ali Gul Pir, and created the track “#KholoBC,” meant to raise awareness for the ban both worldwide and at home. So far, the track has roughly 140,000 views and has garnered significant play on Pakistani television. I linked up with Adil via Skype to discuss the ban, the video, and the significance of YouTube to the country’s young people.

Noisey: Explain the context for the YouTube ban in Pakistan.
Adil Omar: It was banned in 2012 due to the Innocence of Muslims film, which many deemed blasphemous. Most Middle Eastern countries ended up locking the URL or ignoring it, but Pakistan went and blocked the entire website.

Do you read that as a knee-jerk reaction or the impetus that the government had been looking for to do something they’d been hoping to do?
I think that was the excuse they needed. During that time, there were a lot of videos of political misconduct, which made our politicians very uncomfortable. No one really challenged it because of the religious baggage that came with it. According to experts, it’s mostly because of that. They’d been spending a shitload of money on these firewalls and internet filtering systems. To them it justifies the expenditure.

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How big of an issue is internet neutrality in Pakistan?
They started banning adult websites back in 2006. When they started blocking porn no one really said anything since it’s a conservative society. A few people noticed and were like, “Today it’s porn, tomorrow it’s YouTube.” And they were right. They tried to filter out text messages with certain words in them. It didn’t end up working, but they blocked a bunch of websites. Rolling Stone was blocked for a few years. I’m surprised VICE hasn’t been blocked in Pakistan yet. They blocked Facebook for a few weeks back in 2010. The YouTube ban has been the longest ban of a proper mainstream website. People are dependent on it not just for entertainment and access to information, it’s been a fairly huge issue for industries and students as well.

As an artist with a global following, did you feel a responsibility to make “#KholoBC”?
Eventually, yes. Foolishly, a lot of us including me kept hanging on to the hope that they’d bring YouTube back. But as artists, we felt the effects of the ban firsthand before anyone else. We felt it was about time we did something, so we made the song and video in protest.

What’s the reception been like?
In our home country, obviously there are legit NGO’s and organizations such as Bolo Bhi and Bytes for All who have taken petitions to court to get the ban lifted and put internet freedom under control, but it’s been under the radar. The song created a bit more of a dialogue and drew a lot more attention to the issue publicly. When I say “publicly,” I don’t mean the majority of Pakistan—most of them don’t have access to the internet or basic necessities, unfortunately—I mean the people who use the internet, the young people who are aware of the role of YouTube in today’s day and age. The #KholoBC hashtag in the title has become a running thing; you see people posting it anywhere. It has become a bit more of an issue now.

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In your verse in the song, what are you trying to articulate? Is the YouTube issue a generational thing?
To the older people in Pakistan, they see YouTube as a form of entertainment and a way for young people to express themselves. What it actually is is that we’re living in 2014. It’s where people build careers; where people put themselves and their businesses out there; it’s where people learn. Students need YouTube to learn shit. They see it as a trivial issue, but YouTube’s a pretty serious thing in the context of the internet. That’s what they don’t realize. The people in charge of this thing; our IT minister Anusha Rahman is pretty incompetent. The lawyer who’s heading the case to keep the ban imposed has zero knowledge about use of YouTube. I even had a little Twitter banter with him a few days ago. It’s a bunch of people who are completely unaware.

When you say “IT Minister,” is that “IT” in the conventional understanding of the term?
Yes.

Where is Pakistan right now, politically?
I’m hardly an activist; I’m an artist who just voiced his concerns in regard of the YouTube ban. It’s such a divided place; there’s a bunch of different provices; there’s one main government, a bunch of different parties. It’s a very complicated place. It’s too hard to generalize right now.

Talk a bit about the rap scene in Pakistan.
I’m one of the few rappers who raps in English. I think my fans are divided between the rest of the world and Pakistan; I’ve been lucky enough to work outside of the country. In terms of other artists, there’s this one guy Faris Shafi who’s an up-and-coming rapper who raps in Urdu who’s really good. There’s Ali Gul Pir, who I did the #KholoBC video with, he’s more of a comedian/MC. He’s hugely popular, he was the most viral artist on YouTube from Pakistan in 2012. It’s still a relatively young and emerging rap scene. It’s slowly catching on.

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Has anyone from the government contacted you about the video?
I’m sure they’ve got wind of it; it’s been on TV here quite a bit. I’m sure they don’t want to talk about it or give it any sort of official acknowledgement, keep it quiet, and hope it doesn’t get any coverage.

Could you explain the pun of the title?

KholoBC is derived from a campaign by an organization called Pakistan for All, who wanted to raise awareness about the YouTube ban. A friend of mine in the organization and I met and he presented me with the idea of turning it into a rap song and just have fun with it. In real life, BC is an abbreviation for “Bhan Chod,” which means “sisterfucker.” It’s the most vile and banned slur in Urdu. What we’ve done is say “Kholo Bhan Chor,” which means “open/lift the ban, thief.” Chor is a reference to our corrupt politicians.

What can people do to get involved and help out? Just keep tweeting with the hashtag?
That’s the most important thing right now. If people want to get involved, they need to keep tweeting and posting with the hashtag. It’s a fucking horrible thing for these totalitarian governments or wannabe totalitarian governments to be able to do something like that, to cut off a lifeline or entertainment and expression and everything and censor something like YouTube. If people want to get involved they should just make noise and spread the word.

Drew Millard is the Features Editor of Noisey. He's on Twitter - @drewmillard