PTA blocked over 1.54 million online URLs till July 2026, with 89% censorship rate

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked more than 1.54 million online URLs across major digital platforms till July 2026, with nearly 89.4 percent of all reported links being taken down, according to official PTA data.

The data shows that the PTA processed 1,726,303 URLs, of which 1,542,800 were blocked, 76,874 remain under review, while 106,629 complaints were rejected.

The highest number of blocked URLs fell under the “Others/Misc” category, where 891,772 out of 899,415 reported links were blocked, reflecting a 99.15 percent blocking rate.

Among social media platforms, Facebook topped the list in absolute numbers, with 230,270 URLs blocked out of 287,362 processed, followed by TikTok with 170,231 blocked URLs and Twitter (X) with 74,236.

YouTube recorded the highest blocking rate among major platforms at 88.6 percent, with 66,290 of 74,823 URLs blocked. WhatsApp saw 50,165 URLs blocked (90.53%), while Instagram had 45,510 URLs blocked (83.76%).

The data further showed SnackVideo (7,225 blocked), Bigo/Likee (6,539), and Dailymotion (562) also witnessed significant content restrictions.

Overall, the figures highlight the scale of Pakistan’s online content regulation, with nearly nine out of every 10 URLs reported to the PTA blocked by July 2026.

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