Internet Restrictions: Pakistan Ranks Third Globally in Recent Report

In a recent report by Surfshark, a Lithuania-based virtual private network company, it has been revealed that Pakistan has implemented three out of the 42 new internet shutdowns observed globally. These restrictions were put in place after the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan on May 9, as reported by the Internet Shutdown Tracker during a comprehensive half-year analysis.

Access to popular social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube was limited in the country during a recent period. Additionally, the nation experienced intermittent disruptions in its cellular network for several days following this restriction.

According to the study by Surfshark, Pakistan is ranked third on the list of nations leading the list of regimes that enforced restrictions on the internet during the first half of 2023. Iran and India take the first two spots on the list. With Asia serving as the epicenter of the majority of internet blackouts.

Iran was the country that saw the most internet outages during this time period, with a total of 14 occurrences, all of which took place in Zahedan during Friday protests against the massacre that took place in Zahedan.

India came in second place, only behind Iran, with at least 9 occurrences; the vast majority of them took place during protests and rallies.

It is interesting to note that the report makes reference to two different shutdowns of internet service in the region known as “Jammu and Kashmir,” both of which were apparently ordered by the Indian government. If these incidents be counted toward India’s total, the country has seen 11 instances of internet outages in the past half year.

More than two-thirds of the latest disruptions, which bring the total number of incidents to 30, were caused by public fury over social and political problems. This poll also sheds light on the fact that during times of civil upheaval, the Internet serves as the key arena for the dissemination of pertinent information.

The Internet Censorship Tracker from Surfshark examines information from mainstream media and digital rights organizations like Netblocks and Access Now, as well as data collected from social media companies, in order to chronicle instances of censorship on the Internet.

Most Restricted Apps in 2023

During the first half of the year 2023, Facebook continued to be subject to severe restrictions. The app was not available to users in the countries where governments have in the past been known to enforce various forms of online censorship.

Telegram, Instagram, and YouTube are subject to limitations in four different nations, which places them in a tie for the second spot on the list of the social sites that are most frequently prohibited. It was a close race between WhatsApp and Twitter for the third slot on the list, and both services are subject to censorship in three countries.

During the first six months of the year, TikTok was blocked in only one country: Ethiopia. According to the research, the United States of America is rapidly moving toward being the eighth country to prohibit the use of this platform.

Global Report

According to the findings of the study, there was a 31% drop in the number of new occurrences of internet interruption during the first half of 2023 when compared to the same time period in 2022. However, the number of different countries that have instituted similar limitations has increased from 13 to 14.

As a whole, Asia was the region most affected by internet outages, accounting for 71 percent of all new cases worldwide. According to the findings of Surfshark, an estimated 2.35 billion people were subject to internet restriction at some point over the year.

According to the report, the decline in global limitations is mostly due to a decrease in instances from Jammu and Kashmir, which went from 35 in the first half of 2022 to only 2 in the same period in 2023.

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