Pakistan: Government imposed temporary ban on social media after violent demonstrations
Pakistan on Friday banned temporary services on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp after violent demonstrations by a fundamentalist religious organization so that they could not be used to organize demonstrations. The said organization has now been banned from the government.
The government banned Tehreek-e-Labak Pakistan (TLP) on Thursday after three days of violent demonstrations. This organization wanted to pressure the government to expel the ambassador there in France over an alleged blasphemous cartoon published last year. The TLP started a nationwide protest on Monday following the arrest of its chief Saad Hussain Rizvi.
TLP supporters had violent clashes with police in several cities and towns earlier this week in which seven people were killed and around 300 policemen were injured. To stop the demonstrations after Friday prayers, the Ministry of Internal Affairs directed the Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) to shut down social media services for four hours from 11 am to 3 pm.
The PTA said in a notification that “access to social media forums (Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Telegram) is completely blocked.” That protestors can use social media to organize demonstrations.
