“As Anticipated, Social Media Platforms Face Outage in Pakistan Ahead of Planned Political Activity”
In alignment with expectations, social media websites in Pakistan are once again inaccessible just before the scheduled online engagement of a political party.
Current unavailability spans across various social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Netblocks
“Live metrics reveal a nationwide disruption to social media platforms across #Pakistan, encompassing X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.”
This marks the third instance in slightly over a month where social media platforms have experienced downtime in the country coinciding with the expected virtual power show of a political party.
The outage of Facebook, Twitter / X, Instagram and YouTube is the second in two weeks coinciding with online campaign events organized by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, news agency AFP reported.
The occasion was set to livestream PTI speeches. However, reports of internet disruptions surfaced in the early evening, even preceding the commencement of the event.
Alp Toker, Director of Netblocks, stated that, “We can affirm the nationwide limitation of social media platforms throughout Pakistan.”
Speaking to AFP, he described the outage as “remarkably systematic” and “in line with previous restrictions imposed during PTI events.”
In a 9:59 pm update, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) declared: “The recent disruption in internet services was caused by a technical fault, which has been promptly rectified. Internet services have been fully restored nationwide.”
Human Rights Group are Calling This Ban “Absolutely Ridiculous”
Lawyer and civil rights activist Jibran Nasir called out this third internet disruption a clear violation of Article 10, 18, 19 and 25 of the Constituion.
February 2024 Election In Pakistan
The upcoming general elections in Pakistan are slated for February 8. Imprisoned Imran Khan, along with several key PTI candidates, faces disqualification from the election, and on-ground campaigning has been hindered by a crackdown, compelling party leaders to either defect or operate covertly.
Despite these challenges, a Gallup Pakistan survey conducted in December affirms that Khan remains the most popular politician in the nation.
