ISLAMABAD – On March 9, Pakistan entered its fourth week of nationwide disruption to social media platform X, with activists waging a court battle to get it restored.
The platform went down after jailed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s party called for protests against a government official’s admission of vote manipulation in February’s election.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party faced a sweeping crackdown ahead of the Feb 8 poll, and was forced into opposition by a coalition of military-backed parties despite winning the most seats.
Journalists and academics have filed a case in the Sindh High Court in the mega city of Karachi against the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority for the outage.
“X is a common platform of commentary in Pakistan and if you block it, then you are taking oxygen away from public discourse which is illegal,” said their lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii.
“The reason behind this (disruption) is not to stop people from talking but it is to stop most people from listening.”
In a hearing, the telecommunications authority sought more time to respond to the challenge.
The Pakistan government has not commented on the outage.
AFP staff reported on March 9 that X remained disrupted in the capital Islamabad, as well as the megacities of Lahore and Karachi.
Access to X has been sporadic, occasionally available for short cycles, based on the Internet service provider, forcing users to virtual private networks, said Mr Alp Toker of the NetBlocks Internet monitor.
Mobile Internet services were cut across the country on election day, with the interior ministry citing security reasons.
It was followed by a long delay in issuing voting results – giving rise to allegations of rigging.
Khan’s opposition party had already faced heavy censorship in the weeks before the election, and was banned from television channels and from holding rallies, forcing its campaign online. But the censorship followed.
Pakistani Internet freedom watchdog Bytes For All recorded four separate hours-long social media shutdowns in January – cutting off access to TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube while Khan’s PTI live-streamed to its supporters.
“It all started with targeting one political party’s online campaigning during pre-polls. However, post-polls it is more a test of all citizens and democratic institutions – particularly the Parliament and judiciary. How are they going to respond and interpret the blockage of X?” the watchdog said to AFP.
Ms Amber Rahim Shamsi, one of the petitioners and the director of the Centre for Excellence in Journalism, said she believes the restrictions are an attempt by the state to control PTI’s social media success.
“When the state has no credible counter-narrative, it uses coercive measures to control or manipulate information,” Ms Shamsi said. AFP
