Internet services face disruption in Pakistan

Pakistan’s government downplayed the outages, dismissing concerns about the firewall situation as “blown out of proportion.”

Internet users across Pakistan faced disruption in accessing various online platforms on Sunday, according to a media report.

Popular platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have either been suspended or were operating at reduced speeds, leaving users frustrated with limited access.

Around 52% of the users reported issues in sending messages.

Users in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and other parts of the country also reported issues with TikTok and Instagram throughout the day, according to the Dawn newspaper.

People in Pakistan are facing slow internet speed after the government reportedly installed a firewall to monitor anti-state content on social media apps.

The government downplayed the outages, dismissing concerns about the firewall situation as “blown out of proportion.” While speaking to Geo News on Sunday Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecom Shaza Fatima Khawaja said that the situation with the firewall was “blown out of proportion and a web management system has been operating in the country for 10 years.”

“There is nothing controversial about a country working on its cyber security,” she said, adding that the entire world used different cyber security mechanisms.