Tag: PTA

  • WordPress Blocked in Pakistan

    WordPress Blocked in Pakistan

    The popular blogging site WordPress.com is being blocked in Pakistan courtesy of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority flexing their muscles. This is not new, in 2006 Blogspot was blocked because one blog hosted on the Blogspot domain posted the controversial cartoons mocking our prophet Muhammed (PBUH) the blockage lasted for over two years and was silently removed…

  • Twitter Blocked in Pakistan – Permanently or Weekend Testing?

    As of 1:00pm Sunday Twitter.com has become inaccessible to all users in Pakistan. Practically all ISP’s have reports of users complaining of twitter.com being inaccessible. Ever since the reports emerged we have asked affected users to help test the site from their ISP connections and within minutes we had hundreds of reports The traceroute shows…

  • STAY GRANTED: Constitutional Petition Preventing PTA from Blocking of Websites

    On the 17th of April 2012, seven individuals, Dr. Awab Alvi, Sana Saleem, Faisal Kapadia, Nazim Haji, Naeem Sadiq, Noman Quadri and Ayesha Tammy Haq, through their lawyer Haider Waheed with Basil Nabi Malik, petitioned the High Court of Sindh at Karachi challenging the arbitrary and random acts of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in blocking/ censoring…

  • Prophets, protests and holocaust

    Anyone who’s been on Youtube or Facebook or Blogs in general knows that no intelligent conversation can take place between two Internet-commenters. It’s like the paralympics being hosted on the Interwebs. Even if you win, you’re still retarded. During the last fortnight, ever since this unfortunate drawing contest issue caught fire. I’ve been reading countless…

  • PRESS CONFERENCE: Protest Against Nationwide Government Ban of Facebook

    For Immediate Release Defenders of Internet Freedom Protest Against Nationwide Government Ban of Facebook On Wednesday 19th May 2010, the Lahore High Court ordered the banning of Facebook across Pakistan. Facebook is the world’s most popular social media network and is used by over 400 million globally. In Pakistan, over 2 million people use Facebook…

  • Lahore High Court orders Facebook blocked till the 31st of May

    Following hot in the footsteps of the controversial Draw Mohammed Day, Lahore High Court has issued orders to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to block facebook up till the 31st of May on an petition lodged by Islamic Lawyers Movement on Tuesday Daily Times: Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday issued…

  • World Day Against Cyber Censorship in Pakistan

    As a long time activists working for a free and open Internet in Pakistan, I would like to join Reporters Sans Frontieres in highlighting the World Day Against Cyber Censorship today 12th March. This event is intended to rally everyone in support of a single Internet that is unrestricted and accessible to all. It is…

  • PTA blocks website : Make Pakistan Better

    In an email sent just now by the webmaster of Make Pakistan Better, I was shocked to read that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Director General (Enforcement) Yawer Yasin has instructed all its Zonal Directors on 18th January 2010 to block the website http://makepakistanbetter.com on an IP level. Since its blocked from Pakistan one can…

  • PTA blocks Asif Ali Zardari’s ‘Shut-up’ Youtube Video

    Sunday evening Youtube.com started facing intermittent reports of inaccessibility. It initially started off with a simple white page saying “This Site is Accessible” subsequent reports were submitted on Herdict Web shows the inaccessibility lasted for about an hour but then everything recovered back to normal. It was then later reported that the crackdown by the…

  • PTA Blocks websites with Salman Taseer’s pictures ‘Harmful for the integrity of the Country’

    Its being reported that PTA has recently blocked six specific URL’s in Pakistan deeming them “harmful for the integrity of the country“. These websites are blocked for carrying a certain set of pictures containing Salman Taseer, The Governor of Punjab & his family.  The PTA is said to have complied upon the request from the…