Social media shutdown enters seventh day in Pakistan
“User reports indicate possible problems at X,” said website tracker Downdetector.com.
Representative image
ISLAMABAD: Despite the passage of seven days, the services of social media giant X, formerly Twitter, remained suspended across Pakistan even though the authorities are yet to offer any explanation for the outage, a media report said.
Thousands of Pakistanis turn towards the Elon Musk-owned platform for quick dissemination of information, but they are unable to access it since last Saturday, Geo News reported.
Global internet monitor NetBlocks said that VPN services have also been restricted in the country, causing difficulty for the users in accessing the micro-blogging site, Geo News reported.
“User reports indicate possible problems at X,” said website tracker Downdetector.com.
While boasting of being among the top internet user population globally, Pakistan struggles with internet availability, ranking low compared to its peers, while reportedly authorities intermittently disrupt access to social media platforms.
Ahead of the February 8 general elections, users were unable to access several social media sites, for which authorities concerned blamed a “technical error”.
However, on the polling day, the internet was shut down to avoid terrorism, according to the caretaker government. Following the sought-after polls, there were repeated disruptions in accessing X, Geo News reported.