Access to social media platform ‘X’ has been limited in Pakistan for the last 40 hours.
Three days ago on Saturday evening, Pakistani users started facing difficulties in accessing ‘X’, after which access was partially restored on Sunday evening, which has been restricted again on Monday morning.
Now the situation is that social media users in the country are not able to use ‘X’.
It is generally believed about Pakistan that most of the social media users here are present on platforms like Facebook and TikTok, and only a certain section is present on ‘X’ and expresses their opinions.
So in this situation, when there are more popular platforms than ‘X’, why is ‘X’ facing restrictions? And has Twitter become such an important platform in Pakistan that public opinion can be influenced by banning it?
According to journalist Osama Khilji, director of Pakistan’s digital rights organization ‘Bolo Bhi’, only five million people use X compared to 80 million Pakistani users on Facebook and TikTok, but the impact of political activities on this platform is much greater.
He said that there are people who are power players, from journalists to politicians, and it is a means to connect with Pakistanis abroad and the international community.
Osama says that since X also has a hashtag feature that helps create a kind of narrative, the message reaches more than five million users on a daily basis.
He said that people use it to share information, so these days when allegations and evidence of rigging in elections are coming out, it seems that it has been blocked for this reason.
Talking about this, Fariha Aziz, co-founder of ‘Bolo Bhi’, said that regardless of how many Pakistani users use this platform, the importance of this platform is more because ‘power play is going on in our country right now and from state institutions, political parties and journalists to important personalities of the world are present on X.’ ‘
He said that of course Facebook and TikTok have become widely used platforms and they have the popularity of users in Pakistan, but from the political point of view, ‘X’ is more important, so it is being limited because the information that is shared here, narratives are made, people around the world immediately notice them.
“From candidates to ordinary people, election-related forms and other information are being shared on EveryoneX, from political conversation to brainstorming, everything is happening on X. ‘
This is not the first time that social media users in Pakistan have faced restrictions or difficulties in accessing the Internet or social media platforms.
Since May 9 last year, there have been several complaints from the government about difficulties in accessing the internet or social media.
Fariha says that the government has often slowed down the internet or restricts access to any other platform in the past, but the source of headlines made globally is also often Twitter, where candidates and political parties share their information from verified accounts.
“The same political parties also use the same platform for their own interests.”
So are the authorities in Pakistan afraid of X? In this regard, Fariha says that the same political parties also use the same platform for their own interests.
However, he said that when political parties come to power, they also bring pica and other similar laws that are allegedly aimed at suppressing opinion.
“The state imposes sanctions, but political parties do the same thing after gaining power. ‘
Expressing concerns about the future, Fariha says that the last two governments have been raising the slogan of ‘Digital Pakistan’, but if the services continue to remain closed and internet access is restricted, then no investor will come here nor this country will be seen as a serious digital market.
However, Osama believes that limiting access to such X is not very beneficial because now Pakistanis have become accustomed to using VPNs on a daily basis.
It may be recalled that the ‘closure’ of X came to light at a time when allegations of alleged rigging in the elections by Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha came to light.
Former Commissioner Rawalpindi Liaquat Ali Chattha has alleged that the results of the February 8 general elections in Rawalpindi district were allegedly changed and pml-N candidates won through rigging. However, the Election Commission denied the allegations and formed a high-level inquiry committee on the matter.
When the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the telecom watchdog in Pakistan, was asked about the ‘closure’ of X, a PTA spokesman said, “X was closed across the country on the orders of the Interior Ministry.” ‘
However, there has been no statement from the PTA regarding this ‘closure’ nor has the Interior Ministry issued any statement in this regard.
As the partial access to X began on Sunday evening, social media users in their comments slammed the government’s move, calling it against the right to access information and freedom of expression.
“What kind of country is this where a big social media platform has been shut down for no reason and the public can’t do anything about it. Its purpose is only to suppress the voice of the people, to hide the facts from them. This state is a joke. ‘
A user named Huda wrote, “Pakistan needs StarLink, we deserve better than social media shutdowns and internet censorship.” ‘
Criticising the PTA and caretaker Information Technology Minister Omar Saif for restricting access to X, Khalji wrote, “For about 24 hours X was closed across Pakistan, and access to it was possible through VPN, while many users complained that their VPN is also closed and the internet is also slow but so far PTA Not a word was said by the authorities or Omar Saif. It is their job to make internet access possible in the country. This is shameful. ‘
Another social media user criticized the government’s move and wrote, “Tesla is coming to India very soon, more than 4500 IT companies are working in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka’s IT industry contributes about $ 1.2 billion to the country’s economy, while in Pakistan we are still using VPNs because the government shuts down social media.” How long will Pakistan continue to bear this? ‘
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Ali Muhammad Khan also condemned the government’s decision to restrict access to X, calling it a violation of the constitutional rights of Pakistani citizens.
“It is wrong to shut down X, access to information or freedom of expression are constitutional rights, the government must clarify and stop serious violations of constitutional rights of citizens and political activists,” he commented. ‘
Another user sarcastically wrote that Twitter in Pakistan is like lightning when the heart shuts down Twitter, people are fed up with Twitter’s load shedding and use VPN as generator, UPS, solar panel.