Up to the general elections on February 8, all residents must have constant access to the internet, according to a directive by the Sindh High Court (SHC) to pertinent authorities.
The high court ordered the respondents to submit their answer by January 29 and prohibited the authorities from halting internet services in its judgment on Wednesday.
Jibran Nasir, a human rights activist and advocate, had petitioned the Supreme Court over the nation’s repeated suspension of internet connectivity.
Users have encountered several internet interruptions in the past several days as political canvassing intensifies in anticipation of the elections that will take place next month.
On January 20, there was a second outage of social media sites in two weeks, including Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) attributed last week’s widespread internet outage to a “technical fault” in its optic fiber network, following an hours-long disruption.
The PTA posted the following on its official X account: “A technical issue that caused a recent disruption in internet services has been fixed swiftly. All around the country, internet services have been fully restored.
Google services and internet service provider PTCL were also affected, according to downdetector.pk. Additionally, prior to the polls, there were rumors on social media of a total internet shutdown.
A report claims that the state’s relationship with media freedoms has gotten worse over the last two years as a result of an increase in censorship incidents, violence against journalists, and government contempt for critical media.
The Institute of Research, Advocacy and Development (IRADA) released the report “Under Siege: Legislative, Judicial and Executive Actions Stifling Freedom of Expression and Right to Information” as a part of its yearly status of digital media series.
The PTA blacklisted 1.1 million URLs, including 187 mobile applications, during the evaluation period.
About 200,000 of the content and URLs that were blocked or removed were allegedly connected to hate speech, libelous remarks, content that was against Pakistan’s defense or the glory of Islam, and contempt of court.
The study also reveals that the Pakistani government has requested that a large quantity of content be removed from major tech platforms, including Google, Meta, TikTok, and X (previously Twitter).
For instance, the report states that Meta blocked access to 12,001 products in Pakistan between January 2021 and June 2022 that the PTA had detected as potentially breaking local regulations.
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