PTA has blocked access to Wikipedia throughout Pakistan.
However, the platform did not comply with PTA directives despite having been given forty-eight hours to remove the “sacrilegious information.”
ISLAMABAD: Due to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) failure to filter or remove “sacrilegious information,” Wikipedia services were shut down in the nation on Saturday.
The Wikimedia Foundation issued the following statement in response to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s notification that “the services of Wikipedia have been impaired for 48 hours” due to Wikipedia’s refusal to remove content deemed to be “illegal”. Our data indicates that as of February 3rd, this has expanded into a full block.
A restriction of the platform in Pakistan, according to the article, would prevent Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous country, from having access to the “biggest free information library” and would “prevent everyone from having access to Pakistan’s history and culture.”
Them hoped that Pakistan’s government would join it in upholding access to Wikipedia as a fundamental human right, and that it would do so quickly “so that the people of Pakistan can continue to receive and exchange knowledge with the world.”
The statement continued, “We think that access to knowledge is a human right.
The PTA downgraded Wikipedia earlier this week and ordered the reported information to be blocked or removed for 48 hours. The authority also issued a warning that failure to comply will result in the platform being barred inside of Pakistan.
“By issuing a notification under applicable law & court order, Wikipedia was contacted for blocking/removal of the aforementioned contents” (s). The platform was also given a chance to be heard, but failed to do so by removing the offensive material or show up in front of the authority, according to the PTA’s earlier statement.
“Wikipedia services will only be restored when any reported illegal content has been blocked or removed. According to regional laws, PTA is dedicated to providing all Pakistani people with a secure internet experience.
After failing to remove the “sacrilegious information,” the website was disabled.
The institution has already taken note of offensive Wikipedia information before. PTA has warned Google and Wikipedia in December 2020 because of the platforms’ dissemination of sacrilegious content.
The Wikipedia censorship was denounced by citizens all throughout Pakistan.
Usama Khilji, an activist, said: “Courts and regulators must understand that Wikipedia is a crowd-sourced platform where anyone with an account may modify entries, which they can also do instead of blocking the entire website.”
Wikipedia has been entirely blocked in Pakistan, according to journalist Shiraz Hassan, possibly because some babu decided it would be a good idea to prevent Pakistanis from accessing a free source of information.
Pakistan starting a fight with Wikipedia, according to ESPN editor Danyal Rasool, encapsulated its attitude toward the Internet and the pursuit of knowledge.
Journalist Khawaja Burhan Uddin questioned whether the current administration intended to shut down the entire nation.
“Wikipedia won’t be affected, but Pakistan and its people will.”
The action, according to barrister Taimur Malik, was “regressive, bad for Pakistan’s international reputation,” and revealed a “lack of understanding how crowdsourced/edited online information platforms work.”
He demanded an immediate review of the decision by the PTA and the government.
People emphasised the “dangerous trend” of the ban and urged people to speak out if they had “ever utilised Wikipedia or benefited from” it before the government came “for other platforms.”
“Pakistan’s ignorance of how the online world operates is perplexing. Others questioned, “Why on earth would you prohibit Wikipedia?
The reduction on Pakistan’s access to Wikipedia had previously been “seriously denounced” by The Digital Rights Foundation (DRF). Nighat Dad, the campaigner and founder of DRF, emphasised how the downgrading violated human rights.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees everyone the freedom “to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any means and regardless of frontiers,” is violated by downgrading and threatening to block within Pakistan, according to the speaker.