The News reported on Saturday that the telecom authority has already downgraded the portal’s services in the nation.
Islamabad: Wikipedia has been disabled by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) because the website has refused to take down allegedly inflammatory or blasphemous content.
The News reported on Saturday that the telecom authority has already downgraded the portal’s services in the nation.
When a PTA spokeswoman was reached late on Friday night regarding the banning of Wikipedia, the representative said “yes” when asked if it had been done.
According to a source in The News, the PTA downgraded the encyclopaedia website for 48 hours on the high court’s directive since it included offensive material.
According to the PTA spokeswoman, Wikipedia was asked to prohibit or remove the specified content by issuing a notification pursuant to applicable legislation and court order (s).
A chance for a hearing was also offered, however neither the platform obliged by taking down the offensive material nor did it show up in front of the authority.
According to The News, Wikipedia’s services were reduced for 48 hours with the instruction to restrict or remove the reported material due to the platform’s deliberate refusal to comply with PTA’s directives.
If Wikipedia doesn’t comply, the portal has been banned inside of Pakistan.
If the alleged illegal content is banned or deleted, the reinstatement of Wikipedia’s services will be given another thought.
Usama Khilji, a proponent of digital rights, criticised the government for shutting the information portal in his response to the development.
The biggest encyclopaedia in the world, Wikipedia, appears to be censored in Pakistan by @PTAofficialpk.
The Bolobhi director stated that rather than shutting the entire website, the courts and regulators should recognise that Wikipedia is a platform that is crowd-sourced and anybody with an account may modify entries.
