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Authorities in Punjab have proposed blocking YouTube, WhatsApp, Fb, Instagram, and TikTok for six days
Pakistan’s largest province, Punjab, is planning to ban all social media platforms for six days, citing safety considerations, throughout non secular processions beginning subsequent week, its Inside Ministry has introduced.
The Punjab authorities of Maryam Nawaz really helpful on Thursday the banning of all social media together with YouTube, WhatsApp, Fb, Instagram, and TikTok, from July 13 to 18 to “management hate materials, misinformation, to keep away from sectarian violence.”
“It’s a advice, and no determination has thus far been taken,” Data Minister Uzma Bukhari advised Reuters on Friday, including that the federal government had acquired studies of some sectarian points on social media which, in keeping with him, might “put the nation on hearth.”
The choice to implement the suspension can be taken by the federal authorities, led by Nawaz’s uncle, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The proposed ban within the province of over 120 million individuals pertains to Muharram’s Ashura processions, the ten days of mourning noticed by minority Shi’ite Muslims.
The tenth day of Muharram-ul-Haram, the primary month of the Islamic calendar, is taken into account sacred amongst Shi’ite Muslims; yearly they commemorate the dying of non secular chief Hussain Ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
This isn’t the primary time social media has been focused by Pakistani authorities. The nation’s Inside Ministry blocked X (previously Twitter) in February amid the nationwide elections as a consequence of “nationwide safety considerations.” Civil rights activists have criticized the ban as a violation of freedom of speech amid allegations of election fraud in opposition to the ruling authorities, as the primary opposition chief and former prime minister, Imran Khan, stays imprisoned.
A number of convictions had been used to bar Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) occasion from working for workplace within the February elections. The previous prime minister alleged earlier this 12 months that the vote had been undermined by large-scale electoral rigging.
Each the navy and the federal government have reportedly acquired a backlash on social media since Khan’s ouster by way of a no-confidence movement in April 2022.
A Pakistani court docket is because of rule on the final of Khan’s many convictions on July 12; this transfer will coincide with the proposed social media ban.
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