The United Nations (UN) Committee on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) has raised concerns over internet shutdowns, social media disruptions, and online surveillance in Pakistan, according to a report by Dawn.com.
The issues related to continuing internet woes and the threats to free speech and expression in the country were raised at a meeting held on Friday, October 18, in Geneva.
The committee’s chairperson said that the legislative frameworks at both federal and provincial levels create “unnecessary barriers” to the right to freedom of association, which falls under Article 17 of the Constitution of Pakistan.
“We have seen in many areas the NGOs have their finances and plans inspected and all this is being used to interfere in the work of some NGOs,” she said, citing information received by the committee. “There are many reports that national as well international NGOs are subjected to constant investigation and harassment on the part of security operators and govt officers.”
Pakistan has been grappling with severe connectivity problems and social media disruptions since the start of 2024. The first major outage occurred on January 7, rendering leading social media platforms such Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) inaccessible to a large number of users. Online services remained degraded in the lead-up to the elections, prompting several activists and citizens taking the authorities to court.
On the polling day (February 8), the government blocked complete access to cellular internet and mobile phone services under the garb of preventing potential security threats. Eight days later, X was suspended arbitrarily. The authorities remained silent for several weeks despite massive public outcry and calls for transparency and accountability from civil society collectives and journalists.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) later revealed in court that X had been banned on the orders of the interior ministry due to threats to national security, which were not specified. X has surpassed 10 months of suspension in Pakistan.
The disruptions continue to persist. In August, users faced difficulties in accessing Facebook and WhatsApp, which was widely blamed on the installation of a national firewall. The PTA, however, failed to provide any updates why mobile and broadband services were operating at a crawl.
Later that month, the telecom regulator released a statement saying that internet was expected to remain slow till October, ascribing the sluggish speeds to faults in two submarine cables that connected Pakistan “internationally”.
However, WhatsApp and several other social media platforms continue to face unexplained disruptions, specifically on mobile data.
