Following federal government’s ban on X, slowing down internet allegedly due to National Firewall, throttling of virtual private networks (VPNs) is feared as numerous internet users in Pakistan on Sunday reported “restricted access” to VPNs as well as slow internet connectivity.
It is worth mentioning that VPNs use witnessed massive increase in Pakistan following the government’s ban on popular social media platform X.
In August, the country’s Telecommunication Authority began regulating VPN access in a bid to curb access to X, formerly known as Twitter. A month later, the information minister, Attaullah Tarar, clarified that the ban over national security issues had nothing to do with suppressing free speech.
Later, the PTA issued an official statement dispelling reports that VPNs were being blocked, labeling the rumors as false. Authorities asked all the IT companies, software houses, freelancers, and banks to get their IPs registered for VPN usage to avoid disruption of their services.
Many netizens on Sunday complained that VPNs were being throttled and access restricted in some cases. Downdetector and outage tracking site report users had problems while using the services of VPN Unlimited as well as Tunnelbear, according to Dawn.
Majority of the issues were related to being unable to connect to the networks. As per the graph on Downdetector, VPN Unlimited and Tunnelbear user were still reporting connectivity issues as late as 7:29PM.
