Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Major General (R) Hafeez Rahman on Thursday said virtual private networks (VPNs) could be blocked altogether across the country but such a step would hurt businesses.
Addressing the Senate Standing Committee on IT & Telecom today, the chairman said PTA has commenced the whitelisting of VPNs to prohibit unauthorized services from functioning in the country. He added that to date, X usage in Pakistan has fallen by 70 percent with just 30 percent of individuals accessing the app through VPNs.
He further noted that X has only acted on 7 percent of the PTA’s complaints in the past three months. He also said the decision to unblock X lies with the federal government.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar informed the committee that any posts offending religious sentiments often lead to protests. He lamented that criticism of the government is more prevalent on platforms like YouTube and TikTok compared to X, but claimed that the government does not have any issues with criticism on social media.
