No, it’s not for another failed state index. That was soooo last month.
Apparently Pakistan ranks number one in the world in sex-related searches. Why Google would think to rank something like that is beyond me, but Fox News gleefully took this as an opportunity to create this headline:
Pornistan? Ding ding ding! Ladies and gentleman, give Fox News an award for most witty wordplay ever.
In the article, reporter extraordinaire Kelli Morgan wrote, “They may call it the ‘Land of the Pure,’ but Pakistan turns out to be anything but. The Muslim country, which has banned content on at least 17 websites to block offensive and blasphemous material, is the world’s leader in online searches for pornographic material, FoxNews.com has learned.”
Oh but wait! Not only are we a closeted perverted nation, but we’re also into pedophilia and bestiality too.
Pakistan is top dog in searches per-person for “horse sex” since 2004, “donkey sex” since 2007, “rape pictures” between 2004 and 2009, “rape sex” since 2004, “child sex” between 2004 and 2007 and since 2009, “animal sex” since 2004 and “dog sex” since 2005, according to Google Trends and Google Insights, features of Google that generate data based on popular search terms. The country also is tops — or has been No. 1 — in searches for “sex,” “camel sex,” “rape video,” “child sex video” and some other searches that can’t be printed here.
Some other searches that can’t be printed here?! What can be worse than what they already published?
Although I’m frankly disgusted (and horrified) that we are prominent on yet another negative list, I’m not that surprised. Because despite Fox and TIME claims that Pakistan is “a Muslim nation, notorious for conservative [and] religious orthodoxy,” we have perverts, just like every other country in the world, (cue: Pakistanis, they’re just like us!). There’s a reason why internet cafes in Pakistan are filled to the brim with seedy characters, and it’s not because they’re just checking e-mail.
I am not denying the hypocrisy behind banning social media and other websites but giving a green light to the above – but hypocrisy extends to much wider issues and to all societies. The framing of the issue by Fox and other news agencies, in my opinion, is also cause for discussion. Thoughts?
CHUP! - Changing Up Pakistan 
My thoughts: http://www.koolmuzone.com/2010/07/pakistan-or-pornistan/
It is a bit weird that we are no.1 on the list because we do not have so many internet users. It could be the fact that for a nation of our size we have the largest search queries for porn. Fox has never been known for being the most truthful channel out there and they love to sensationalize news. I do believe that we have a lot of people searching for porn over here as I read about it somewhere else but to call us no.1 is a bit of an exaggeration. That would mean that 80 percent of our internet population needs to be googling for porn every minute to reach that level. My website monitoring system gives me insight to the mindset of people as it shows me the search queries which lead them to my site. Most of them are always for porn so you can see that it’s no wonder we are on the list but then it can’t be so much.
This report is the icing on the cake for all the news channel as on one hand we go around protesting against facebook and making a big deal about everything and yet no one does anything against porn. It makes us look like a nation of hypocrites so I guess we deserve that. Porn is where they always come up with the excuse of self censorship and sadly when it came to facebook there was no such excuse.
Shobz,
Here’s an interesting thought at the end of this Dawn blog:
“Being a country ready to take out demonstrations against anything and everything, doesn’t anyone want to protest the findings on Pakistan’s porn obsession and accessibility? Where are the placards now? Where is the young, angry and righteous youth now? Where are the religious parties now?”
http://blog.dawn.com/2010/07/16/mind-your-ps-and-qs/
The stats didn’t amaze me. Yes, I was shocked when I had come across the Rawalpinid cyber cafe scandal in 2004. Before that I had no idea that Pakistanis are not just interested in watching porn but they are also capable of creating one as well… no matter how amateur is it.
It hurts only on this level that in Pakistan hypocrisy galore.
For Fox News that was the perfect gossip stuff… when they can talk about UBL’s underpants… then they can discuss anything!
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What research is this based on? The total number of searches or the % of of total searches that were for porn?
This is ridiculous.
Its on Google Trends. Go check for yourself. Having only 20 million Internet Users, Pakistan tops the list.
I’m having doubts over the accuracy of this article.. Half the population doesn’t have regular access to the internet. And how can we beat countries like China and those crazy Japanese. And the United states, majority of the porn comes from the US. So really, lets think about this for a second before we make Pakistan #1.
On a side note, its kinda hard not to like porn.. I mean really, or are the rest of us going to claim false humility and pretend we don’t watch porn from time to time..
I don’t know how to respond to that…
On a lighter note, may be the US, Chinese and the crazy japanese know their “porn-adda”s…they don’t need to google for that….the poor pakistani’s are starting from scratch….also, keep in mind google is beaten to pulp by local chinese search engines, i m assuming it’ll be the same in Japan since the language search would look for different keywords…..but still all said and done – all justifications apart – No.1 is something:)
It’s total searches divided by total internet users. Makes perfect sense.
Yes, most definitely needs to be discussed because we are the most hypocritical nation. We’re all too happy to conveniently dismiss what we don’t like and pick and choose. We’re always happy to blame the world for our woes. We believe in delusional conspiracy theories. And yet… up in arms at even the slightest criticism. Yes, this should be discussed and I’m glad you brought it up. This is not shocking considering just how sexually repressed our society is and how we are ingrained to believe that rape isn’t a crime…
Nabiha thanks!
I think sexual repression is a key issue here, and issues related to rape, gender-based violence, etc. are all important points too.
First, I was annoyed about how Fox did choose to frame the issue and polarize it, but the hypocrisy evident in this case is very interesting and noteworthy.
Hahaha number 1 in porn! That’s all about sexual repression! It’s human nature to be curious about sex. Except I can Click 2 buttons on my remote and get it on demand, or walk down to 7-11 and buy a hustler, or watch it on my iPhone. I don’t need to go to seedy Internet cafe for it. My point being that it’s probably number 1 on the list because that’s the easiest option for the people.
And I believe that everyone has watched or will watch some porn in their life. (just like masturbation, everyone does it)
So interesting and I really do think it’s funny.
apparently, google has denied this:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/sci-tech/pakistan-top-on-porn-search-google-denies-jd-03
According to Fox, this is Google’s response:
“We do our best to provide accurate data and to provide insights into broad search patterns, but the results for a given query may contain inaccuracies due to data sampling issues, approximations, or incomplete data for the terms entered,” Google said in a statement, when asked about the accuracy of its reports.
Didn’t stop Fox News from calling Pakistan Pornistan though!
Having some experience in playing with data myself and reading ‘freakonomics’, I just had one small question: How many # of searches were exactly done on these topics and how do this number compare to other highly searched topics on this subject?
Now I’m not suggesting that ‘Pakistanis’ don’t search for porn nor I’m suggesting that some of the Pakistanis are interested in exploring other avenues of ‘satisfaction’, but I’m just very curious about the #1 title!
Without comparing the exact number of searches on all the topics regarding sex and finding how significant the terms we search for are as compared to other terms… how can we be termed ‘#1’.
Its like Meera claiming herself as ‘#1 actraass in the werld’ on the basis of some lousy pakistani films she has worked in and which no one watches :p
OKay whatever, we also top searches in “economics”, “education”, “university”, and “mathematics”. Check it out yourself. What we be then? Educatistan? btw, the term “porn” shows ireland as the top country. “sex” shows pakistan. we might be sexistan, but not pornistan. (no pun intended. i do not mean sexist-an)
Oh, and number two in ebooks and free book and number one in free books and free dictionary.
looks like we are doing a lot more than just watching “sex”.
These are the top searches in pakistan:
1. pakistan
100
2. download
80
3. urdu
30
4. games
25
5. songs
25
6. karachi
20
7. news
20
8. pictures
20
9. video
20
10. youtube
I don’t see sex there somewhere.
btw, US tops the “whore” search list and Czech Republic tops “an** sex”. Australia “slut”. Because people in Mexico search “gay” the most, should I conclude most mexicans are gay? or Australian women are lesbians?
Awesome comment, very true.
No.1 Nation in Education related Web searches? Call it Parhakistan.
They may call it a land of oppression, terrorism and extremism, but Pakistan turns out to be anything but. The Muslim country, which has a very high poverty and illiteracy rate and suffers from a faltering public school system, is the world’s leader in online searches for academic material, Sonia B. Has learned.
Pakistan is top nation in searches per-person in “economics”, “mathematics”, “ebooks”, “free dictionary”, “university” and “education” since 2004 and some other searches that have not yet been found out. Pakistan may have a falling GDP and a high inflation rate, but it seems the people in Pakistan are the most interested in subjects such as economics and mathematics. Because of the high cost of books available in the market, many even search for free books online to continue education.
Ps: I know how biased and wrong this passage is. I know it is not true either, but if Pakistan can be Pornistan on that basis, it sure can be Parhakistan.
(i also understand how wrong rape pictures and child sex are but really. pornistan?)
I just checked for the top 10 Google search terms in Pakistan since 2004 at Google Insights for Search site. Here they are:
1. Pakistan
2. Urdu
3. songs
4. games
5. Karachi
6. news
7. Youtube
8. Google
9. pictures
10. Yahoo
The “rising searches” include the following 10:
1. facebook
2. youtube
3. geo
4. google
5. videos
6. you
7. song
8. jang
9. news
10. games
Conspicuous by its absence is “sex”, and related terms, busting the myth being perpetrated here.
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#geo=PK&cmpt=geo
myth not busted
What is “unpure” about pornography? I think members of the adult entertainment industry (and most evolutionary psychologists) would disagree with that.
@Riaz Haq: Those results are filtered. Read the help file, it says:
“Please note that Insights for Search applies a filter for search terms that may be explicitly sexual. Also note that top searches won’t include adult content unless the search terms entered pertain to such content. No filter is 100% accurate, but these filters should eliminate most inappropriate material. Since some material may occasionally not be filtered out in the top searches, please contact us if you find offensive content, and we’ll investigate it.”
If such “explicitly sexual” terms are filtered, where did the Google data being used to allege perversion in Pakistan come from? And if Google does report such data, why does it filter such terms it in the first place?
Please read http://www.riazhaq.com/2010/07/exposing-hateful-lies-on-google.html
I’m amazed by the psychology driving people like Riaz Haq. He believes whatever makes him content to believe, rejects hard facts, and makes wild accusations to cover up.
Bottom line: Our prefrontal lobes are far too small.. and our adrenaline glands are far too big.
FOXNews can sod off! Don’t nobody dare shut off my porn, lest there be many very pleased donkeys.
My thoughts are……..somebody needs to start creating the ‘positive list’….these news are eh. boring now. Let’s touch base with Fox News 🙂 Maybe they can start…*chuckles*
To some extent FOX is correct but we should’ve collected this data first.
But marginalising Pakistan solely is injustice.
actually that search is a bit misplaced—-pakistan was no.2 and not no.1—that coveted honor goes to saudi arabia.however that is beside the point that saudi arabia heavily bribed google and got positions switched with pakistan, making pakistan graduate to top position. While no doubt, pakistan like saudi is a very hypocritical society, i dont understand what makes searching for and viewing pornography hypocritical. i mean muslims like other ppl r first and foremost humans and then muslim/pakistani. BTW, i have no doubt that the more religious someone is, whether it is muslim,christian,hindu, jewish etc, and especially if that person lives in a rigid and restrictive country, the more chance that person is frustrated and enjoys the forbidden albeit in a clandestine fashion as to not soil one’s social repuatation. i have no doubt that many, though not all, moulveez are pedophiles/faggots and/or visit brothels. i think that for muslim countries especially for pakistan, religion should be kept in private sphere like in turkey for the country to progress.
Looks like a breeze of fun topic for the otherwise ongoing killing spree in our land.
Just enjoy the non- sences.
Who cares anyway when scores of our people are dying
everyday 😦
This story was ‘created’ by FoxNews. It is a bogus story. Today Google issued a statement denying that Pakistan topped the list in porn searches. Also, the ISPAK, which is the association of Internet service providers in Pakistan, issued a detailed statement and debunked the figures used by FoxNews to plant its damaging story.
Totally agree with the above commenter. ^ 🙂
For all those who are saying that Fox reports are false or have been denied:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=donkey+sex
These things are out there for anyone to see.
Yes here are the links which further support that its a biased story and part of a slur campaign http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/sci-tech/pakistan-top-on-porn-search-google-denies-jd-03
http://telecompk.net/2010/07/18/google-denies-fox-news/
So you would believe subjective statements and not the data available right in front of your eyes by a reliable search engine:
http://www.google.com/trends?q=donkey+sex
By the way even assuming the sample size was correct etc then if you search ‘education’ on that site you will see Pakistan comes on top in searches for education. How come that was not highlighted!!!
You are missing the point.
The article was about sex-related keywords and not just one word. Use that tool again, if you can come up with more than one keyword for education, you have every right to post your story in whichever medium you have access to.
PS: Its not sample data, its data mining from entire search requests database from Google and hence the term “Google Trends”.
Kaalsoom its easy to understand that this report certainly motivated as porn industry is booming in the western world and in India where percentage of internet is more than Pakistan and there is one more thing you can justify that human nature dont fall in normally in sex issue like horse sex. donky sex, camel sex, dog sex before watching normal porn. Seeing report on Fox news or Times of India who rewarded a country Pakistan to Pornistan and so called “Land of Pure” dont make any sense to me to believe that Pakistan no.1 for Sex search . It is their policy to defame Pakistan on the ground that dein Land is obsessed to block access to website like Google, Youtube, Wikipidia. They are happy to make some fun on countries like Pakistan where so many problems are moving in. they just trying to show the world a one more negetive picture of pakistan where Govt making funny international news over the internet issue.
Well Kalsoom,
I guess that we are a Sex Starved Sub-Continent which has to be blamed here. Indians would be no Different am sure, neither would any one in Asia Pacific. So i dont think much about it as a matter of fact.
Point to be pondered though is that under all that suppression, lies the intent to break free. Fortunately, for the youth, Internet (rather Porn on Internet) has proven as an easy way to break free without getting caught.
TTV India
Doesn’t FOX have more important things to report on?
I think it is because of lack of cultural activities and lack of sports culture in Pakistan. Youngsters have nothing to do in their leisure time other than to waste time in cyber cafes.
last year one of my pak friends were telling me that pak cities are the safest for women in the world. I didn’t believe it, now I think I can- as most of the guys are searching for horse sex, camel sex …….
Camelsthan Zindabad
someone e-mailed me this article on this topic:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010728story_28-7-2010_pg9_6
kelli morgan pollson turns out to be an intern at fox news. since google didn’t publish any rankings, she thought up and manually searched for all the lewd terms e.g. “donkey sex”, “rape sex” etc. in the article. the real question is, why?
Pakistan tops the list as per today.
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i feel very sorry at this
and i think i cannt say any more on it as it is very ashameful 4 us being a Muslim and Pakistani. i feel very sory and disappointed on my young generation. they are forced to go on the wrong way rather than the right 1. materialism is always atractive so our young generation is being attracted 2wards this wrong and totally disastering way. but only we are by ourselves can avoid and get rid out of it by keeoing our eues open and refreshing the tallemat-e-Islam.
it will be resolved. i beleive in God. may God Bless us with His Blessings