Pakistan's Twitter ban enters fourth week despite court order against it

The popular microblogging site X in Pakistan was suspended for a fourth week on Friday. The suspension was imposed, ostensibly, to stop the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party from spreading false information accusing the PML-N of “massive rigging” of the polls on February 8.

The administration of new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the former caretaker government are not prepared to provide an explanation for the prolonged suspension of X in the nation.

In spite of the Sindh High Court’s directive to reinstate citizens’ access to the well-known social media platform X, it has been unavailable in Pakistan for almost three weeks.

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On this occasion, the state does not appear to be particularly concerned with offering an explanation for why users are being refused access to X, despite the fact that such choices are typically formally justified by the authorities on the basis of some other pretext.

Internet access is governed by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) across the nation. But the PTA categorically disputes that X is blocked.

According to Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the “mandate thieves” and those who support them want to impose an indefinite social media ban in order to maintain their fascist reign because they are scared of the opinions of the public.

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After the shocking press conference of top government official Liaqut Chatha, who claimed that Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa were involved in widespread election manipulation on February 8, the Pakistani authorities cut off X in the middle of February.

Then, X went viral in Pakistan, demanding an audit of the results and the return of Imran Khan’s PTI’s “stolen mandate.”

Social media was ablaze with cries for an election audit after the commissioner claimed he was forced to alter the results of 13 National Assembly seats in the Rawalpindi division, making the PTI-backed independent candidates losers to benefit the PML-N.

“The Pakistani authorities found no other way to control that criticism and chose to disrupt X in the country,” the PTI said.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), blocking access to the internet and social media platforms hurts e-commerce and online enterprises while making an already precarious and failing economy even worse.

“It also infringes on people’s right to democratic decision-making, information and expression. This practice must stop immediately,” it said.