As anticipated, social media websites in Pakistan are once again inaccessible just ahead of the scheduled online activities of a political party. Popular platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are currently unavailable in the country.
The disruption of social media in Pakistan has been confirmed by internet monitor Netblocks. In a post on X, Netblocks stated, “Live metrics show a nation-scale disruption to social media platforms across #Pakistan, including X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.” Remarkably, this marks the third instance in slightly over a month where social media platforms have gone offline concurrently with a virtual power show planned by a political party.
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In both previous disruptions, on December 17 and January 7, Netblocks reported a nationwide outage of social media platforms. Despite speculations pointing fingers at the caretaker government for the suspension of these platforms, there has been no official statement from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on the matter.
Notably, Caretaker Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Dr. Umar Saif, known for his activity on social media, has yet to comment on the seemingly unexplained social media shutdown in the country. His silence on the matter is conspicuous, especially considering the significance of the issue at hand.
