Pakistan planning to ban social media to control ‘hate material’ during Ramadan

Censorship by the Pakistani government is in full swing as it has been over four months since X (previously Twitter) was blocked in the region, and now all social media platforms, including YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, are set to be shut down for five days starting July 13.

The Pak government is doing this to tackle the circulation of “hate material” during the Islamic month of prayer and fasting known as Ramadan.

Ban on Social Media to Control Hate Material

A ban on social media, including YouTube, X, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, during 6 to 11 Muharram (July 13–18) in Punjab is suggested by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s cabinet committee on law and order. A notification from the Punjab government, issued in Lahore late Thursday night, indicated that this move is to “control hate material and misinformation to prevent sectarian violence” in the province, which has over 120 million residents.

Maryam Nawaz’s Punjab government has requested her uncle Shehbaz Sharif’s central government to officially block all sites connected to social media for one week, particularly from July 13 to July 18. Present Pakistan 

Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir has specifically called social media “vicious media” and argued the need to counter what he termed “digital terrorism.” Although some of these calls were originally issued by Pakistan’s Information Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, who is also the foreign minister, he has since further gone on to call for the total banning of social media.

Pakistan’s Shehbaz government closed X last February when ECP had accusations of tampering with the general election results, apparently on the directions of the military to bar PTI’s jailed founder Imran Khan from coming into power.

The military and government have been criticized vigorously on social media after the no-confidence motion removed Imran Khan from the premier’s post in April 2022. Since then, the government has arrested many social media activists from Khan’s party.

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