Pakistan’s web controls likened to ‘shot in both feet’

ISLAMABAD: Amid political turmoil, the government is turning to draconian internet censorship, which threatens to cut the country off from a promising future, experts and citizens say.

Social media site X has been down since February, internet outages are becoming more common and severe, and web tools used to evade censorship will soon be banned for personal use. “Censorship and surveillance we are seeing right now in Pakistan is unprecedented and very sophisticated,” said Pakistani digital rights activist Usama Khilji.“It´s creating frustration in society,” he told AFP.

Mobile internet outages have become common fixtures during protests by Khan´s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party since he was ousted in 2022, but a home internet cut off is far more unusual. The Interior Ministry said the measure was taken in the capital “only in areas with security concerns”. Shahzad Arshad, head of the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan, told AFP the measure was taken because “residents had opened their wifi” to demonstrators on previous marches. But without a connection, Muhammad Fahim Khan, an assistant professor, said he suffered a double lockdown — unable either to reach his university in person or to teach remotely.“Ongoing projects come to a halt due to internet outages,” the 37-year-old said. “Productivity and the quality of life have been quite ruined.” Last year Pakistan was on the brink of default, saved only by bailouts from abroad, and the new government has touted tech as a potential economic lifeline for its recovery.But student and blogger Khadija Rizvi said internet cuts “undeniably worse than ever before” have left her disillusioned about her prospects.

“The persistent internet outages have rendered it impossible to make any meaningful progress,” the 25-year-old said. “This internet shutdown feels like a complete waste of valuable time and potential.”Thousands of food delivery drivers who scrape a living using online apps were also left without work during the capital protests, which subsided early on Wednesday.Islamabad is a city of just one million, but the other 240 million people in Pakistan have also suffered a grinding internet slowdown since August.