On Thursday, reports surfaced that X (formerly Twitter), which was banned on February 17, had been restored in Pakistan after over seven months. However, many users who attempted to access the platform without a virtual private network (VPN) were left perplexed when they found it still inaccessible.
The confusion broadened after the lawyers representing the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in various petitions (which have been clubbed together) against X’s suspension and internet outages gave contradictory statements in the Sindh High Court (SHC) at a recent hearing.
One of the two lawyers informed the court that the notification for X ban has been “withdrawn”, according to a report by Dawn.com. This statement was contested by the petitioners’ counsel, who argued the platform was still inaccessible.
The second PTA lawyer, on the other hand, expressed lack of knowledge when asked by the court if the notification’s claimed withdrawal meant the restoration of X. The court, too, expressed surprise on the contradictory statements of the PTA’s lawyers and subsequently adjourned the hearing for two weeks.
To investigate the reports regarding X’s speculated restoration, the digital investigators at Facter, the fact-checking cell led Media Matters for Democracy (MMfD), tried accessing the platform without a VPN. It yielded no results supporting the claims. Different team members based in Islamabad and Karachi too confirmed that accessing X was still not possible without a VPN.
Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja informed the Senate on Thursday that X has been blocked in the country on the interior ministry’s directives. According to the minister, X was blocked using the PTA’s “web management system”, which the authority installed under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, commonly known as PECA. “It is being used to block grey traffic and objectionable content,” Khawaja said.
X was banned on February 17, roughly a week after the country went to polls. What followed was a series of questions posed to the government demanding justification for the unannounced ban by users, digital rights activists, and journalists. However, it became known only several weeks later that X had been blocked on the interior ministry’s orders, which cited unspecified threats to “national security”. The ban will surpass its eighth month next week.
