Pak govt targets more social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, restricts access to them

After successfully blocking X for over six months, the Pakistan government seems to be clamping down on more social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram by restricting their access to the people.

Some users are also experiencing issues with other Meta-owned apps, such as WhatsApp.

This is being viewed as a step towards a plan to impose a complete ban on social media.

No official word

Since Wednesday (July 17), Facebook and Instagram have been restricted in Pakistan, causing users to experience difficulties accessing the social media platforms across various internet service providers (ISPs).

There has been no official word so far from the Pakistani government regarding restrictions placed on access to Facebook and Instagram.

The ban comes amid an ongoing tussle between the superior judiciary, former premier Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the powerful military establishment which is apparently running the government.

The Punjab government led by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz earlier had asked the federal government to ban all social media platforms, YouTube, X, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc., from 6 to 11 Muharram (July 13 to 18) in Punjab, a province of over 120 m people, to "control hate material, misinformation to avoid sectarian violence" during the holy month.

Services disrupted

Nayatel, a telecommunication company, said on X on Thursday: "Facebook and Instagram services have been disrupted with all service providers across the country for the last two days. This blockage is in addition to the already blocked Twitter/X.

"We are waiting for a reply from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority for the reasons for this blockage and when this ban will be lifted," Downdetector which tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources including users showed that user reports indicated problems in accessing Facebook.

According to NetBlocks, a global internet tracking agency, "Restrictions on Facebook are in effect on multiple providers in Pakistan." X (formerly Twitter) has been banned in Pakistan since February 17, 2024, following outrage on the "stolen mandate" of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) backed candidates in the February 8 general election.

Pakistan Army Chief Gen Asim Munir has already declared social media a "vicious media" and underscored the need to fight against this "digital terrorism." Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar who also has the portfolio of foreign minister has also called for placing a complete ban on social media.

Both the military and the government have been receiving backlash on social media since the ouster of former prime minister Imran Khan through a no-confidence motion in April 2022.

The government has arrested dozens of social media activities of Khan's party since then.

Threat to peace

After keeping mum on the ban on X for about five months, the Ministry of Interior recently told a higher court that it had taken the step as "X is a threat to peace and national security as it spreads “misinformation and incites violence."

The Shehbaz government also said that the ban was imposed on X "on the basis of reports from the intelligence agencies."

Khan's PTI on Thursday lambasted the restrictions on more social media apps like Facebook, saying: "After Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were also banned in Pakistan. Freedom of speech and access to information is not just a concept of the inherent human right to voice one's opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment, but also a right everyone’s born with."

The PTI further said that times like these when all tactics are being employed to blindside the most popular party of the country, thwarting freedom of speech even after oppression, now sounds like freedom to discriminate, by the power hub.

(With inputs from agencies)