Tarar takes U-turn, admits X services suspended in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Days after claiming that social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, was accessible to online users, Information Minister Atta Tarar has admitted that popular social networking app is suspended in the country.

In an interview to a local news channel on Monday, Tarar said: “Twitter was already banned when we came to power and there is no official notification [about this].”

Stressing the need for a charter on “do’s and don’ts”, the info minister said that there should be talks between the political parties that which “red lines” should not be crossed on the social media platform.

He expressed his annoyance over allegation against women, abuses, misbehaviour and smear campaign against martyrs’ sacrifices on the social media.

It is pertinent to mention here that Tarar had rubbished the journalist’s question on March 13 when he was asked why X continued to remain suspended in Pakistan.

“Twitter [X] is working,” the federal minister had claimed, “Tweets are being posted on Twitter too. If there is a [official] notification calling for the closure of [Twitter] then you can show it to me. We can discuss it.”

The popular social media platform X, which is an important source of information, remains inaccessible in Pakistan to millions of users for more than a month now, since its suspension ahead of the February 8 general election.

Besides a complete suspension of internet on the polling day, netizens have been facing sporadic disruptions and hindrances in accessing the social media platform despite different courts’ orders for the resumption and uninterrupted access to the masses.

In addition to this, human rights activists and civil society organisations had also sought immediate resumption of X in a joint statement expressing profound concern over the increasing instances of internet shutdowns and social media platform blocking on March 13.

Calling out the “arbitrary blocking of platforms”, the rights activists and civil society organisations had launched a campaign #InternetKholo to draw the new incumbent government’s attention towards the matter for restoration of X.

“These actions not only infringe upon the fundamental rights of freedom of expression and access to information but also set a troubling precedent of throttling genuine political discourse including plurality of voices in the country,” the statement had read.

The statement had also criticised Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for continuous silence and failure to furnish any reasons for its actions and exceeded its mandate to block an entire internet platform.