In Pakistan it is prepared preparing the Internet is prepared – Firvol, but the authorities deny that this will limit freedom of speech. On Friday, the Minister of Information and Telecommunications of Pakistan, Shase Fatima Hawaii, confirmed that the government introduces a new Internet regulation system, calling it “improved cybersecurity.”
“This is a system, not a physical wall. It will not limit anything,” said Hawaii. She emphasized that this decision was made due to daily cyber attacks on the country.
In the last budget of Pakistan, more than 70 million dollars were allocated for the initiative to develop digital infrastructure. However, critics and activists for digital rights are afraid that the firewall will be used to suppress dissent. For several months, the Pakistani authorities hinted at the possibility of introducing a censorship tool but did not hurry with official statements.
In January, the temporary prime minister of Pakistan, Anvar-ul-hack Kakar, in an interview with the news channel announced the imminent deployment of the national firewall. In June, a senior official confirmed that the Schakhbaz Sharif government is working on creating a tool to control Internet traffic and filtering content.
At the same time, the Sharif government avoided detailed explanations and tries to minimize fears about censorship. The Minister of Information and Broadcasting Attaulla Tarrar said at a briefing that the firewall would concern exclusively cybersecurity and data security, and will not affect freedom of speech.
On Thursday, the Pakistani media The News reported that the problems that users encountered when sending messages through the WhatsApp messenger owned by Meta*were the result of the Firevol testing. The representative of the independent Pakistani telecommunications administration refused to comment on the process of implementing the Firevol, saying that their systems functioned normally, and the problems that have arisen could be caused by a technical failure.
Netblocks observer recorded five incidents of restrictions on the Internet access this year, most of which occurred during general elections in February.
*Meta and its products are recognized as extremist, their activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation.