Services on the social media site X were intermittently suspended on Monday after being restored after being blocked for almost 36 hours starting on February 17.
Following the resignation of former Rawalpindi commissioner Liaqat Ali Chatha and his admission that he oversaw the poll results on February 8, there was a renewed uproar over the results, which led to the blockade.
The global internet monitor NetBlocks reported on Saturday about the “national-scale disruption to X amid escalating unrest and protests over allegations of election fraud.
In a Sunday post, the watchdog noted the platform’s continuous restriction, calling it “the latest and longest in a series of nation-scale internet censorship measures imposed by authorities.”
It is important to keep in mind, though, that X was blocked once more yesterday following a 30-minute restoration, and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) refuses to answer calls.
Digital rights activist Usama Khilji criticised the government in an interview with Geo News for placing limitations on the internet.
It has been observed that throughout the past three months, social media applications in Pakistan have been stopped five times. Furthermore, he stated, “mobile internet was blocked on election day and the day after.”
He expressed concern that this is a very serious matter since, in addition to the government being prohibited by law or the Constitution from blocking the internet.
So many restrictions on internet services in Pakistan is hurting the country’s overall investment climate, especially in the IT sector.
He agreed that Pakistan loses $53 million a day if the internet is down, as reported by Netblocks, a global internet monitoring agency, and that these blockades negatively impact IT companies.
Khilji said the Internet blocking will cost Rs1.3 billion, based on a calculation by the government-run Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
“It not only harms your reputation but also interferes with the ease of conducting business. The IT sector is the only one in the country growing and generating foreign cash, despite the fact that international investors find it difficult to do business with us.
Many argue that laws are needed to prevent false information and fake news, but who will define false information, and if the government disseminates false information, will it be held accountable for its actions and punish its own officials?
Thus, we must employ co-regulation and self-correction systems to counteract this. It is also recommended to make use of the methods available for reporting these reports to social networking sites.