Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Fearing large-scale unrest amid the second wave of Covid-19, Islamabad on Friday imposed a four-hour ban on the use of all social media platforms to contain mounting social, political, religious, and economic unrest due to the virtual collapse of the Imran Khan government on all fronts.
However, the government gave no reason for the extreme step of “completely blocking” social media, merely a day after it slapped a ban on the radical Islamist party Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), under the Terrorism Act, after its supporters clashed with the police and security forces for the third consecutive day.
They have been demanding the release of their Emir, Saad Hussain Rizvi, and the expulsion of the French Ambassador. They had set on fire properties and even taken some police officials hostage in Karachi early this week.
The unprecedented move seems to be a ‘trial balloon’ to gauge public reaction before a more stringent and longer ban is imposed.
In a statement, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry announced that it would briefly be suspending the services of Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, and Telegram in the country, but gave no reason for this suspension.
It said that “…complete access to social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Telegram) may be blocked from 1100hrs to 1500hrs on 16th April 2021 across the country.”
In a “most immediate” communication, the ministry directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to temporarily block access to social media websites across the country between 11 AM and 3 PM on Friday.
In a statement released shortly thereafter, the PTA said that it was restricting access to “certain social media applications” in order to “maintain public order and safety”.
