Internet body issues report on news, social media blackout

ISLAMABAD: Internet and digital rights organisation “Bytes For All” has expressed concern over blanket ban on news and social media website by the Pakistani government over the weekend and issued a detailed report on the technical evidence of the censorship.
A number of social media sites and news outlets were blocked in Pakistan during a botched crackdown on protests by the religious parties. As information about the government operation was reported by the media, protests spread across the country, literally jamming roads and closing businesses.
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) prohibited live coverage of the operation at Faizabad, leading to governmental blocking of social media sites and online news channels. “The arbitrary ban over the internet website is a matter of great concern and a violation of relevant UN conventions,” said Haroon Baloch, Programme Manager at the ‘Bytes for All’ while commenting on the electronic and social media blackout on 25th and 26th November.
He said the government has in past also censored content on internet under the newly introduced cyber law and ignored its international obligations. However Baloch also lamented lack of respect for code of conduct on part of some media channels which continued live broadcast of the security operation but on the other hand Pemra should not impose blanket ban on media. “Internationally no media outlet will provide live coverage of security operation as it could jeopardise the success of such operation,” he said.
The fresh report provides technical evidence of observed censorship events. “We confirm the DNS blocking of 14 news websites, as well as the censorship of applications including Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and WhatsApp’s web interface,” the report says.
“We share (Open Observatory of Network Interference) (OONI) network measurement data collected from Pakistan, confirming the DNS-based blocking of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. All of these censorship events were temporarily implemented last weekend, and are no longer in place,” says the report. The report is collaborative effort of ‘Bytes For All,’ Pakistan and OONI.