Abstract
The study aimed to explore perceptions of Madaris and university students regarding the ban of YouTube in Pakistan due to uploading and sharing of blasphemous movie Innocence of Muslims in the mirror of uses and gratification approach. It also focused on implication of banning and unblocking of the social networking website by comparing perspectives of religious and mainstream students. In order to investigate the phenomena the Survey methodology was applied for the purpose of the research. The overall results indicated that the University students were in favor of YouTube unblocking while Madaris students categorically expressed concerns over unblocking of the website. It was divulged that the majority of Madaris students were desirous of a permanent block of YouTube in Pakistan while the University students held contrary view of blocking of YouTube forever. In comparison of Madaris students as explored that every third university student was accessing the website while relying on the proxy server in order to unblocked YouTube. The Results showed that majority of respondents from both type of educational institutes were alive to the reason of banning of the social website. But only a few viewers watched the controversial and blasphemous video. As findings of the study indicated this point of agreement between the university students with modern outlook and the Madaris students with orthodox approach regarding zero tolerance against uploading and sharing of blasphemous contents on the social networking websites.