Pakistan Internet Firewall: The making of North Korea 2.0?

The internet has become a battleground in the land of the pure. The high and mighty of Pakistan no longer fight with tanks and missiles but with throttled bandwidth and shutdowns. Over the past 18 months, censorship in Pakistan has intensified, but in the wake of protests against the rigged elections on February 8, the authorities escalated their efforts by banning the popular social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

In response, Pakistanis turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass the internet bans. Realizing that their existing censorship measures were insufficient, the Big Brother began implementing a national firewall through internet service providers (ISPs) to control social media. This system will block unwanted content from reaching a wider audience, effectively turning Pakistan into a North Korea 2.0.

Pakistan has a long history of internet disruptions, especially during political turmoil. After the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2023, the country experienced a four-day blackout, and social media applications have reportedly been blocked more than six times over the past year. Pakistan ranks third globally for imposing nationwide restrictions, with each measure carried out without warning or explanation from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, casting serious doubts on the rule of law and the country’s digital economy ambitions.

The new censorship tool, the National Firewall, aims to limit the reach of undesirable material and block its sources. The keyword filtering system will detect content deemed a threat to national security and hide it from users. This filter targets social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and X, with preparations also underway to prevent the ‘misuse’ (according to the government’s definition) of VPNs.

You know what this means, right? Yes, once the Big Brother is able to identify users, they could be disappeared or imprisoned through the corrupt legal system if they are lucky.

I can argue that Internet censorship violates fundamental rights to freedom of expression and hinders economic activity. I can tell you without a clear and transparent legal basis for these restrictions, the systematic erosion of democratic principles puts the country on a dangerous backward path but then who cares? The high and mighty of this country treat us like peasants.