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Pakistan faces growing internet censorship

Pakistan faces growing internet censorship

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In the last week of November, Pakistan experienced what was essentially an internet blackout. Social media apps like WhatsApp became inaccessible after authorities blocked internet and mobile phone services. This was ahead of a planned march to Islamabad by supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, to protest Khan's imprisonment.

The government cited security concerns and initially announced it would be a partial shutdown, but delays and internet outages were reported across the country. Two weeks after the protest, users were still reporting connection delays that affected both their communications and their livelihoods. In addition to this latest internet shutdown, Pakistani authorities have also restricted connection through a content-specific firewall.

This is not the only form of censorship seen in Pakistan amid the long repressive march against the PTI, before and after the event. Prominent journalist Matiullah Jan was arrested by a group of unidentified individuals at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Hospital in Islamabad on November 28 and released on bail on November 30 as part of a drug and terrorism case that international human rights organizations describe as false and “baseless”.

Shortly after his kidnapping, his son released a statement calling out authorities for arresting his father because of his reporting. Jan was also kidnapped in 2020 and is one of many journalists in Pakistan who continue to be punished for their work.

Farieha Aziz, a Karachi-based journalist and director of digital rights organization Bolo Bhi, told Index that the increase in repression and censorship in Pakistan in recent years is impacting the population in two ways .

Some will [fight it] even more, and some will become more circumspect, she said. Experts say what happened around the protest appears to be the latest piece in a long-running effort to slowly restrict internet access and freedom of expression in the country.

With Internet access regularly cut off at every major event, including protests and elections, these attempts are becoming increasingly successful.

These restrictions will only increase. This is not something that will go away with time, said digital rights researcher Seerat Khan, adding that authoritarianism is increasing across the world and these influences are also visible in Pakistan.

Aziz added that Pakistan's leadership makes it comparable to countries known for their questionable human rights records. She said parallels can be drawn with Myanmar and China, for example, and that restricting the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) can be compared to Russia.

What particularly worries activists and ordinary citizens is that this censorship has become part of daily life. Besides complete internet shutdowns that are already causing significant damage, internet delays and bans on certain content are also common and much harder to spot.

Anam Baloch, a digital rights activist and researcher, explained that by not consistently blocking entire platforms, internet bans in Pakistan are not always immediately detectable.

Recently, WhatsApp and Instagram issues were reported, but when we tested [them] is ONI [Open Observatory of Network Interference] they were fine because they weren't blocking entire platforms, Baloch told Index.

It is not just freedom of expression that is affected. Pakistan's economy relies heavily on its growing digital sector, and the country produces 20,000 IT graduates each year, many of whom work freelance or in small startups that rely on the Internet. IT industry trade association Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) issued a statement predicting that the disruptions could result in a loss of $300 million for the country's IT sector.

There have been many reports about how this affects freelancers and small businesses, which is true because they don't have backups. But what is the media [leaving] What stands out is that the Internet forms the basis of most businesses, even in Pakistan, where for some reason people think it doesn't matter. Everything runs on some kind of digital connectivity, said Sindhu Abbasi, an independent journalist specializing in cybercrime and technology.

All of these impacts are interrelated, Khan added, and freedom of expression is directly linked to other freedoms like access to information and freedom of association and assembly.

All of these freedoms are under attack, she said. And there is no longer really any room to challenge the restrictions.”

You are out of options as to what to do. [Before] you can file a public interest complaint or talk to someone in Parliament, Aziz said, adding: Not that [anything] It happened because of that, but at least there was this dialogue and now there is no more dialogue.

Censorship slowly grew stronger, as Pakistanis watched in horror at the situation, feeling helpless to do anything to prevent it. First there were Internet and mobile service outages during elections and important events. Then, in February this year, X was banned, with the Interior Ministry saying the platform posed a threat to peace and national security.

Abbasi said that under the previous PTI government, the internet would be blocked in areas we call 'peripheries' like Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. More recently, reports of internet bans in Kurram after issues of sectarian violence in November and in Pakistan-administered Kashmir during protests in May show the extent to which the government relies on these bans as a form of control .

For now, rights activists are losing hope of finding a way out, with many telling Index that things could only get worse from here.

Sources

1/ https://Google.com/

2/ https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2024/12/pakistan-faces-increasing-internet-censorship/

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