PTA blocks Wikipedia in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked Wikipedia in the country as the website has refused to remove offensive or blasphemous content.

According to medal reports, the PTA had earlier degraded the website for 48 hours due to the blasphemous content, as ordered by the high court.

A PTA spokesperson said that Wikipedia was asked to block or remove the content, but it did not do so. It was first degraded for 48 hours and last night (Friday) was blocked.

Meanwhile, Wikipedia, through a thread of tweets, has confirmed that Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects have been blocked in Pakistan.

It said that the suspension of its services will deprive the people of Pakistan of the “right to access knowledge”.

“On 1 February, we received a notification from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority stating ‘the services of Wikipedia have been degraded for 48 hours’ for failure to remove content deemed ‘unlawful’. As of 3 February, our data shows this has extended into a full block,” the tweet stated.

It said that the fifth most populous nation in the world is being “denied” access to the largest free knowledge repository, stressing that “access to knowledge is a human right”.

“If it continues, it will also deprive everyone access to Pakistan’s history and culture,” it added.

Wikipedia expressed the hope that the Government of Pakistan joins it in “a commitment to knowledge as a human right and restores access to @Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects promptly”, in order to allow people in the country to access and share knowledge.