Twitter might face a ban in Pakistan threatens Pakistan Telecom authority

Twitter has been asked by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to comply with the regulator's request to block the objectionable content on its platform. As per some reports Twitter has been threatened to face a complete shutdown in case of failing to comply with the requests made by the PTA.

As per some reports from the Dawn online, Twitter might get banned in Pakistan. The reason behind this is speculated to be the Pakistan government's inability to get Twitter in line with its set of guidelines which the government believes is suitable for public consumption and falls in line with the constitutional realm of legitimate free speech. It is also being reported that the PTA had informed the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat on Wednesday that other social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and others have already complied with the request made by the Pakistani government, whereas Twitter didn't comply with the request. The other platforms reportedly have already taken down the content, while; Twitter still needs to remove them.

Nisar Ahmed, Director General of PTA's Internet Policy and Web Analysis had told the committee "Out of a hundred requests from Pakistan to block certain offensive material, roughly five percent are entertained. Twitter ignored all the remaining requests."

The committee had also held a meeting for a briefing on the penalties that were fixed by the PTA against "derogatory" comments. These derogatory comments were spread through social media targeting the state, its citizen, and institutions.

Ahmed had further informed the committee about the directive by Islamabad High Court (IHC) to serve Twitter with a final notice. In the final notice served by the court, Twitter was asked to respond to the request from Pakistan and if failed to comply then face the risk of getting banned in the country.

Ahmed further mentioned that "The PTA has conveyed the court's concern to Twitter, but has not got a response. The regulatory authority will implement court orders if Twitter does not respond to the final notice."

According to Ahmed, Twitter is not as popular in Pakistan as Facebook. Therefore they will have little to lose if Twitter was blocked in the country. However, if the micro-blogging platform gets banned in the country then it will lose business adds another official.

"The court is determined to teach Twitter a lesson - they will lose business," the official added.

It appears that Twitter might experience some tough time in Pakistan if it fails to comply with the rules set by regulating authorities. Twitter will now need to monitor the content that is being posted on its platform in the country to avoid any ban in the coming days.