Use "un-Islamic": Pakistan wants to ban VPN services for individuals
VPN services are a thorn in the side of Pakistan's government. They are now to be banned for individuals. There is support from a high Islamic body.
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Pakistan wants to ban private individuals from using VPN services. From December, only those that are used by companies will be allowed to function. This was reported by the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, citing the responsible telecommunications authority PTA. The authority had previously announced that from November 30, only commercial VPN software used in the business sector would be permitted. Non-commercial services used by individuals to view blocked content would not be granted the necessary approval. Providers have criticized the plans, but the highest body for the interpretation of the Islamic religion has declared that access to "immoral" content via VPN services is "un-Islamic".
Various justifications
As Dawn explains, VPN services are popular in Pakistan for accessing the short message service X, which has been blocked since February 2023. However, supporters of imprisoned ex-president Imre Khan also use them to conceal their internet usage, adds the AP news agency. This could be the main reason for the ban plans that have now been announced. The ban was demanded by the Ministry of the Interior, which claimed that VPN services were being used by insurgents to spread their agenda. In the south of the country, there has recently been an increase in fighting with a militant independence movement.
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For years, Pakistan has been one of the countries that most severely restricts internet freedom. The popular video app TikTok has already been blocked there several times, and Wikipedia was also briefly inaccessible last year. VPN services are a popular method of circumventing such blocks. According to Dawn, the Ministry of the Interior has now justified the request to block VPN services with the great popularity of pornographic content. In total, more than 840,000 pornographic websites are blocked in the country and around 20 million access attempts are registered every day. This is now to be stopped.
(mho)
