The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s campaign to register VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, received a boost from the Council of Islamic Ideology, which called on the government to ban them because they were being used to access pornographic or blasphemous websites. That the VPNs are also used by users mainly to get around the blocking of X, formerly known as Twitter, which has been banned in Pakistan since February, was not mentioned. This declaration came the same day as the Interior Ministry sought a ban on VPNs. The animus against X is because it has been the main place where the keyboard warriors of the PTI have exerted themselves. The concern for public morality seems to have been tacked on. The ban on X has been challenged in court, but no decision has been reached so far. The Interior Ministry request is based on the use of terrorists by VPNs for communication.
This is a will otherwise chase. The state would probably be more comfortable in the old days, when the 1857 rebels had to send around chapatis to raise the flag of revolt. Or perhaps when silk handkerchiefs were used, during the later Reshmi Rumaal Tehrik of Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi. Ever since the invention of the radio, the state has been uncomfortable, and with the invention of the Internet, it has virtually been reduced to impotence. An attempt was made to regulate social-media platforms by getting them to register, but this was shot down after the platforms protested. Youtube has been banned, but it was lifted, and X has been. However, this ban shows why bans will not work, much as the government would like them to. Technology finds backdoors. Already, the ban on X has failed to the extent that the Prime Minister uses it quite openly. When the VPN door is closed, another will be opened.
COAS Gen Asim Munir also weighed in the issue in his remarks at the Margalla Policy Dialogue, hosted by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute, saying the ‘spread of misleading and incorrect information has become a significant challenge. He might know from personal bitter experience that life in the fishbowl is not easy at all. But there is really no alternative. Even the most weighty state machineries seem unable to prevent people from using the Internet for private purposes.
