Pakistan’s internet users faced significant disruptions on Sunday as popular platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, and TikTok were either suspended or operating at reduced speeds. Around 52 percent of users reported issues sending messages, while others experienced problems with voice notes and general application concerns. The slowdown followed the government’s installation of a firewall reportedly intended to monitor anti-state content on social media apps.
Users in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, and other parts of the country experienced problems throughout the day. Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecom Shaza Fatima Khawaja downplayed the outages, stating that the situation had been “blown out of proportion.” She mentioned that a web management system had been operating in the country for 10 years and emphasized that enhancing cyber security was not controversial. There is nothing controversial about a country working on its cyber security,” Khawaja said, adding that the entire world was shifting towards an IT-based security paradigm.
She also noted that Pakistan faces millions of cyber attacks daily, making it increasingly difficult to detect terrorist activities.
Government internet controls spark frustration
Despite government assurances, at least two online tools have contradicted claims of uninterrupted internet services.
The Dawn newspaper analyzed data from tools monitoring network stability and real-time internet outages, finding that users had limited access to several social media services on Sunday. The Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA), a tool developed by the Internet Intelligence Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology, reported disruptions lasting for hours. Although the network remained stable at the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) level, IODA noted disruptions based on its examination of traffic to various online services.
IODA uses traffic to Google services from a geographic location as a benchmark to determine abnormalities in internet access. Downdetector, another tool tracking social media outages, corroborated IODA’s findings by reporting persistent user complaints about issues with Gmail, YouTube, and WhatsApp throughout the day. These disruptions have sparked concerns and frustrations among Pakistan’s internet users, highlighting the impact of increased government surveillance and control on the accessibility and reliability of digital services.
