Monday, 12 March 2012

Internet Censorship in Pakistan



The recent news in Pakistan, the Lahore high court has ordered the Ministry of Telecom and Information to disable Facebook by October 6, 2011 due to the fact that users in Facebook posts contents which promotes religious discriminations. 

This isn't the first time such decisions are made in Pakistan. However in 2010, the government temporarily blocked Facebook for posting blasphemous content. This is mainly because Pakistan had a long history of censorship relevant to religions. During the years back, they used to ban books, newspapers, even journals and imprisoned journalists who tried to raise their voice against the government. They claim that religious discriminations are attacking human rights.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has sent a legal notice to all the ISPs asking to furnish detailed report about the customers using Encrypted VPNs. This is so that whoever wants to use this technology needs the permission from the government to access it. 


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