ISLAMABAD, AUGUST 14: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman, Hafiz Rehman, has been contacted by the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on IT to provide an explanation for the current interruption of social media across the country. Rehman has been asked by the committee, which is led by Amin ul Haq, to explain why social media services were disrupted.
The committee has also asked for information about the poor cell signal and countrywide disruption of internet access. An invitation has also been extended to Pakistan’s Attorney General to attend the committee hearing, which is set for August 21 at Parliament House. It is important to note that internet services are presently unavailable throughout Pakistan; the precise reason for the outage is still unknown.
According to preliminary indications, foreign traffic rather than the local network is most likely the cause of the outage. Notably, despite the severe interruption, Meta platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram are still operational.
Officials from Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd. (PTCL), according to sources, have determined that a likely source of the outage might be a problem in the subterranean submarine cable.
PTCL sources claim that this issue has affected internet service nationwide.
firewall on the internet
Days after the Punjab government passed the Defamation Law 2024, the Pakistani government previously determined to manage social media by building a firewall across Internet service providers (ISPs).The government has chosen to establish a firewall in order to restrict internet traffic and control social media, according to sources who spoke with ARY News. Deep packet inspection (DPI) technology will be installed in the firewall, enabling data monitoring all the way up to the seventh layer.
With the use of the firewall, the government will be able to censor information that is off-limits, identify and ban propaganda sites, and filter social media data. The government will pay a portion of the cost of installing the firewall, which must be done by Internet service providers (ISPs).
According to sources, ISPs will be required under the license agreement to take action to restrict unlawful content, and the firewall will be able to block data at the IP level.
