File photo. Banaras Khan—AFP
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Wednesday confirmed that mobile broadband internet will remain suspended nationwide for an “indefinite” period.
A spokesperson for the regulator said internet services had been suspended on the directives of the Ministry of Interior, which claimed the curbs were being implemented to reduce the spread of disinformation following the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in the Al-Qadir Trust case.
On Tuesday evening, as protests erupted over the arrest, reports started emerging from various parts of the country that internet services were being disrupted. Additionally, the Interior Ministry also announced that it was blocking access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The bans on Twitter and Facebook remained in place on Wednesday, but the curbs on YouTube appeared to have lessened, with the website available once more in parts of the country.
Netblocks, an independent organization that tracks internet outages globally, announced in a statement that it had witnessed restrictions on access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube across Pakistan following Khan’s arrest. It said “total internet shutdowns have been observed in some regions,” adding that disruptions were recorded on “some but not all” mobile and fixed-line internet providers in Pakistan.
In its report, the organization said the disruptions could be avoided by using a virtual private network, which could circumvent the “government internet censorship measures.” It further warned that such restrictions hampered people’s access to information and impacted their right to freedom of expression and assembly.
According to sources within the Interior Ministry, the decision to implement restrictions on internet services and various social media sites was taken on the widespread sharing of videos of violent protests.