The Real Reason Pakistan Banned Wikipedia
Just recently, the most famous online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, was caught under fire in Pakistan. The website was given a time duration of just 48 hours by PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) to look into the mess. However, the requests weren’t fulfilled within the time limit, which ultimately led to the website getting banned in Pakistan on February 1, 2023.
You might wonder what grave situation might have occurred that made PTA take such serious action against the website. In this video, we will dive into the details of what exactly happened that led to the ban, which is now depriving people of a huge knowledge resource.
The Wikimedia Foundation hosts Wikipedia in Pakistan. It is one of the most used websites in the country because it provides one of the largest and most comprehensive sources of information on the Internet. Although anyone can edit the content which raises concerns about its reliability. But still the website is everyone’s go-to. It is easily accessible for free from anywhere with an Internet connection.
Wikipedia was requested to remove all the material that was considered to be blasphemous content. However, no specific content was highlighted by PTA to be sacrilegious. PTA gave the website an ultimatum of 48 hours; failing to comply would lead them to a blockade. The representatives from PTA said that the website failed to respond to repeated correspondence; hence it is now blocked in the country. But, it is also crucial to acknowledge that the website did remove some content which was deemed blasphemous. But PTA demanded the removal of all of the content; until then, the website will remain blocked.
In response to the current situation, the Wikimedia foundation stated that the ban would deprive people the free access to a wide range of knowledge, history, and culture. The website covered a diverse range of topics from science and history to entertainment and whatnot. The imposed ban would create obstacles for people to access vast amounts of knowledgeable information available on the platform. Wikipedia is a popular source of information for students, teachers, and researchers, and banning it could negatively impact their ability to access reliable information for their studies and work. It could hurt the local economy as well as discourage people from using the Internet and technology, as they will have limited ability to access information. The ban would also lead to a negative perception of Pakistan which can damage its international relations.
There was also a widespread uproar across the country’s social media platforms. Some criticised this move, while some supported the ban. There were free speech campaigners who protested against this move. Banning Wikipedia was seen as a form of censorship, limiting people’s freedom of expression and access to information. They claimed it to be an effort made to control online content. Furthermore, Usama Khilji, a digital rights activist, said that the purpose of the ban is only to suppress the freedom of speech and silence any dissent. He also added that blasphemy is weaponized most of the time for this purpose. But on the contrary, freedom of speech activists often forget that freedom of speech doesn’t give anyone the right to hurt religious or cultural sentiments. Propagating wrong and hurtful information while claiming it to be freedom of speech is unacceptable. This often leads to chaos.
On February 4, Wikimedia said that they don’t decide what content should be included and what should be excluded. They said that it is the public that adds relevant content to the website.
But this raises a question? Is the available information really reliable when it’s not verified by Wikipedia? Should a website with uncertain reliability be used for deriving information?
If Wikipedia doesn’t keep a check on what’s added to the website while allowing people to freely edit information then it is not reliable at all. Without any reference the information present on the website cannot be proved accurate. Unless Wikipedia raises its standards of maintaining authenticity of information it shouldn’t be used as widely as it is being used.
Is the ban still imposed, or was it lifted? Let’s discover now.
The widespread condemnation and outrage on social media successfully made the prime minister of Pakistan acknowledge the ongoing issue. He ordered Pakistan’s telecom regulator to restore Wikipedia in the country. They now plan to restrict only the objectionable content rather than banning the website completely. The Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb stated in a tweet that the government constitutes a committee to review the blanket ban. The committee’s purpose is to provide alternative technical measures that can counter objectionable content without depriving people of the benefits of Wikipedia.
However, this is not the first time online platforms have suffered a ban in Pakistan. Many useful websites faced blockades. YouTube, one of the most famous video-streaming websites, was banned in Pakistan in 2012. The ban was imposed because of posting an anti-Islamic film deemed offensive and inflammatory. The ban was lifted later, but the site has been blocked multiple times since then for similar reasons. Any website with content that can be controversial or against Pakistani laws and cultural values can be banned anytime. If we look at this from a positive perspective, we can acknowledge that reviewing content is a crucial task and they are performing it very well to keep the faithful ones out of never ending painful exchange of words or imagery online.
The PTA has the authority to block websites it deems inappropriate or harmful and periodically reviews and updates its list of blocked sites. This effort is made to respect the social, cultural, and religious sentiments of the country.
Similarly, TikTok also suffered a ban because of vulgar streamings and clips during its initial period.. The Chinese App’s sole purpose was entertainment. It came under fire because many saw it as a way of spreading obscenity and immorality. In 2020 TikTokapp again remained banned for almost six months in Pakistan. There have been many temporary social media bans also in the past years for various reasons.
Now because of the continuous efforts of application owners and TikTok’s content regulatory team a lot of the content and profiles posting such questionable content has been completely removed with no traces left. Tiktok also collaborated with the Govt of Pakistan to review and remove any content violating cultural, moral or religious values. This generous understanding from TikTok resulted in long term collaborations with the local engineers, data scientists, social media experts and state govt. With that TikTok also managed to sponsor big events in Pakistan such as PSL.
Pakistan has a long history of blocking different apps as well as major websites regardless of their type. It can be seen as a threat to the freedom of speech or an effort to protect religious, moral and social values. What do you think about these bans? Let us know in the comments below. We hope that it was informative for you.
