Internet censorship in Pakistan

Internet censorship in Pakistan arises from government attempts to control information transmitted via social media and the internet. As of December 2024, X (formerly Twitter) is banned, despite the government utilising the platform for official communications.

There have been notable instances of website access restrictions in Pakistan, most prominently the ban on YouTube from 2012 to 2016. The government has requested several social media organisations to establish local offices within the country, but this has not yet materialised.

In 2010, Pakistan garnered international attention for blocking Facebook and other websites in response to a contest that encouraged users to draw images of the Prophet Muhammad. Generally, internet filtering in Pakistan remains inconsistent and intermittent, primarily targeting content considered a threat to national security, as well as pornography, homosexuality, and religious content deemed blasphemous. The current ban on Twitter is viewed as politically motivated.

In 2019, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecom was informed by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) that approximately 9,00,000 URLs were blocked for reasons including blasphemous and pornographic content or sentiments against the state, judiciary, or armed forces. More recently, in February 2023, Wikipedia was temporarily banned by the PTA for two days due to alleged blasphemous content.

Overview

In mid-2012, Pakistanis enjoyed relatively easy access to a diverse range of online content, including sexual, political, social, and religious sites. The OpenNet Initiative identified internet filtering in Pakistan as substantial in the conflict/security domain and selective in the political, social, and internet tools categories as of August 2012. Furthermore, Freedom House categorised Pakistan's Freedom on the Net Status as Not Free in its 2022 report, a status that remains unchanged.

Internet filtering in Pakistan is overseen by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), operating under the direction of the government, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and the Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT). While much of the filtering is intermittent—evidenced by occasional blocks on major websites like Blogspot or YouTube—the PTA persistently blocks sites it deems to contain blasphemous, anti-Islamic, or security-threatening content. Despite these restrictions, online civil society activism aimed at protecting free expression has been growing, as citizens increasingly utilise new media platforms to share information and organise efforts for change.