The participatory online encyclopedia Wikipedia has been blocked in Pakistan for “blasphemous content”, the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) announced on Saturday, while the issue of blasphemy is particularly sensitive in this Muslim country. The authority did not provide any details about the content in question.
Wikipedia was blocked nationwide on Friday “after failing to respond to our repeated request to remove profane content and missing the deadline” for removal, Malahat Obaid, a spokesman for the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, told AFP. PTA).
“They removed some of the content (in question) but not all of it,” the spokesperson added. Wikipedia “will remain blocked until all controversial content is removed,” he said.
“Greater control over Internet content”
Access to the encyclopedia from a mobile phone was impossible on Saturday, an AFP journalist said.
In a statement, the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, said the blockade “prevents the world’s fifth most populous nation from accessing the world’s largest free repository of knowledge.” “If this continues, it will also deprive the world of access to Pakistani knowledge, history and culture,” the statement said.
For Usama Khilji, a defender of digital rights, the Wikipedia blockade is the result of “a concerted effort to exercise greater control over content on the Internet.”
“The main goal is to silence any dissent,” he told AFP, noting that “profanity is often used for this purpose.”
In the past, some pages of the encyclopedia had already been censored in Pakistan. Social media giants Facebook in 2010 and YouTube between 2012 and 2016 have also been blocked for the same reason. Most recently, the video-sharing platform TikTok was repeatedly blocked from broadcasting in the country for content deemed “indecent” and “immoral.”
Source: BFM TV
