Days after claiming that social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, was accessible to online users, Information Minister Atta Tarar has admitted that the popular social networking app has been 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].”
Emphasizing the need for a card for “do’s and don’ts”, the Minister of Info said that there should be a discussion between political parties about which “red lines” should not be crossed on the social networking platform.
He expressed his displeasure over the accusations against women, abuses, misbehavior and defamation campaign against the sacrifices of the martyrs on social networks.
It is pertinent to mention here that Tarari had dismissed the reporter’s question on March 13 when he was asked why X continued to remain suspended in Pakistan.
“Twitter [X] it is working,” the federal minister had asserted, “Tweets are also being posted on Twitter. If there is one [official] The notice calling for the closure of [Twitter] then you can tell me. We can discuss it.”
Popular social media platform X, which is an important source of information, remains inaccessible in Pakistan to millions of users for over a month now, since its suspension ahead of the February 8 general elections.
Apart from a complete internet blackout on polling day, netizens have faced sporadic outages and disruptions in accessing the social media platform, despite various court orders for resumption and uninterrupted access to the masses.
Apart from this, human rights activists and civil society organizations had also demanded the immediate resumption of X in a joint statement expressing deep concern over the increasing cases of internet shutdowns and social media platform blocking on March 13. .
Calling “arbitrary blocking of platforms”, rights activists and civil society organizations had launched an #InternetKholo campaign to draw the attention of the new incumbent government to the issue of X’s restoration.
“These actions not only violate the fundamental rights of freedom of expression and access to information, but also set a disturbing precedent of stifling genuine political discourse, including the plurality of voices in the country,” the statement said.
The statement had also criticized the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for its continued silence and failure to give any reason for its actions and has exceeded its mandate to block an entire internet platform.
