Pakistan blocks access to Wikipedia, cites 'blasphemous' content

(Representative Image)

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has blocked access to Wikipedia in the country after it had given the website 48 hour to remove "blasphemous" and "objectionable material".

As BBC News reported, PTA spokesperson Malahat Obaid told the press that The Wikimedia Foundation failed to respond to "repeated correspondence" over the removal of said material.

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The official PTA twitter account tweeted on February 1 that Wikipedia was issued a notice, "under applicable law & court order(s)", and an, "opportunity of hearing was also provided, however, the platform neither complied by removing the blasphemous content nor appeared before the Authority".

The website services were degraded for 48 hours as a warning before the site was blocked on February 4.

Wikipedia has been blocked in Pakistan.

Today, Pakistan’s Telecommunications Authority blocked @Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in the country. Follow the thread for more information (1/4)https://t.co/8xM73if9B2 — Wikimedia Foundation (@Wikimedia) February 4, 2023

Details of the materials that prompted the ban have not been disclosed to the public.

Wikipedia is far from the only platform that has had trouble in the country. In 2010, YouTube was blocked for "growing sacrilegious content", even other popular platforms like Facebook and Tinder have been banned in Pakistan before.

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In response, the Wikimedia Foundation twitter account tweeted that the block, "denies the fifth most populous nation in the world access to the largest free knowledge repository. If it continues, it will also deprive everyone access to Pakistan's history and culture".