Many internet users in Pakistan experienced Friday night limited access to virtual private networks (VPNs) and intermittent internet connections. This comes against the backdrop of a government campaign to shut down unregistered VPN services that create, provide, or distribute content and services regarded as illegal, even though the authorities had earlier announced the extension of the registration deadline to November 30, 2024.
VPNs can be used in almost every part of the earth to access services that may be restricted or unavailable in the user’s country. In Pakistan, X (post formerly known as Twitter) and similar content are understood to be the primary reasons VPNs are utilized.
The Government Response to the Rampant Use of Unregistered VPNs
On Friday, the Federal Interior Ministry ordered the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to block “illegal VPNs” nationwide nationwide. The ministry mentioned concerns that state that due to these VPNs, terrorists can “carry out violent activities” and also “view pornographic and blasphemous content” with ease.
A letter from the ministry to the PTA states, “VPNs are becoming increasingly in the hands of terrorists who wish to hide their communications. They are also used to covertly reach out to pornographic and offensive materials.” The ministry has also persuaded the PTA to help people block illegal VPNs without affecting registered VPN users and using the service for legal purposes.
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Users, however, continue to experience VPN service interruptions even after the VPN registration deadline was postponed to November 30, 2024. The PTA had also previously claimed that online registration for VPNs would be easy to ensure that IT firms, freelancers, and others would experience no downtime in accessing VPNs.
Internet User Feedback and Trouble with Services
On Friday, several people tweeted that they encountered problems connecting to the VPN service. According to Downdetector, an outage monitoring site, users of VPN networks such as VPN Unlimited and TunnelBear had connection issues, with almost all the concerns being about connection establishment.
Some users even posted a few VPN services that they thought worked in Pakistan. But others also stated that these services, too, were facing some connectivity issues at times.
PTA’s Campaign Against Unconstitutional Content
Last Wednesday, the PTA stated that VPN use would be limited to blocking access to pornography. In the notice, the authority mentioned that, as of now, 100,183 blasphemous URLs and 844,008 pornographic sites have been blocked. It also mentioned that around 20 million people in the country accessed pornographic sites on the web, which were presented at the international internet gateway.
The PTA’s response came a day after the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony sent a letter asking the authority to prohibit the distribution of offensive and pornographic materials.
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Islamic Ideology Council Declared
On Friday, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) ruled that the usage of Virtual Private Networks is “not permitted.” CII Chairman Allama Dr Raghib Hussain Naeemi remarked, “Using the internet or any software (VPN, etc.) to achieve immoral or illegal ends is not allowed. According to Sharia law, a person using a VPN to browse prohibited or unlawful websites is not permitted.”
He maintained that although the majority of the purposes VPN machine provides such as confidentiality and protection, VPNs are also used in accessing illegal sites.