Islamabad, Sep 27 (SocialNews.XYZ) Pakistan's information ecosystem has increasingly shifted from open exchange to the steady accretion of platform bans, internet suspension, covert surveillance, cybercrime prosecutions, regulatory coercion, and the quieter intimidation of critics, according to a report.
The digital transformation has changed the relationship between the state, its citizens, and political power in Pakistan. Journalists, activists, leaders from the opposition parties and citizens, through the use of social media platforms - X, Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp - have been able to circumvent media gatekeepers and participate directly in national political discourse, according to the report in Greek City Times.
"Yet this democratisation of communication has been accompanied by the expansion of an increasingly sophisticated apparatus of digital control. Pakistan’s information environment is now defined less by open exchange than by the steady accretion of platform bans, internet shutdowns, covert surveillance, cybercrime prosecutions, regulatory coercion, and the quieter intimidation of individual critics. Freedom House’s 2025 assessment rates the country “Not Free” in internet freedom, assigning Pakistan just 27 out of 100," Paul Antonopoulos said in the report.
In Pakistan, Article 19 guarantees freedom of expression, subject to restrictions mentioned in the Constitution. The problem is not the presence of restrictions in Pakistan but their expansive, opportunistic interpretation. Instead of functioning as narrowly tailored protection against genuine harms, the legal and technological instruments of Pakistan have been using them to manage political criticism, as per the article.
The principal legal tool used for regulating this sphere is the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) of 2016. Conceived as cybercrime legislation, PECA has evolved into one of Pakistan's most versatile tools for policing online speech. The difficulty further increased after the PECA Amendment Act of January 2025, as it intensified control over online content and criminalised sharing "false and misleading” information.
Last month, several media professionals, artists, academicians and human rights defenders from across Pakistan have warned that the country is witnessing one of the gravest crises for freedom of expression in recent decades.
The observations were made during a roundtable convened by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) with the support of the European Union (EU). According to the HRCP, the participants raised concerns over unchecked abuse of laws such as the country's PECA, expanding censorship, surveillance and arbitrary restrictions on online expression.
They also pointed to shrinking access to information, intimidation of journalists and increasing pressure on independent, regional and digital media in Pakistan. They further stressed that these curbs no longer affected journalists alone, but also ordinary citizens exercising their constitutional right to free expression.
Suspension of internet in Pakistan shapes not only what citizens may say but whether they can coordinate at all, according to the report in Greek City Times.
Pakistani authorities suspended mobile internet in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) when the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) led protests over electricity tariffs and flour subsidies. A total communications blackout was imposed, with mobile, landline and internet suspended together in PoJK when JAAC held a protest over the 38-point charter demand in September-October last year and police fired at protesters in Muzaffarabad.
"Beyond such shutdowns, authorities have pursued more embedded surveillance and filtering. Disruptions to WhatsApp and Signal throughout 2024–25 have been linked to monitoring technologies at the network level, while Amnesty International’s 2025 investigation described a broader mass-surveillance system, partly built on technology from international suppliers, operating largely invisibly, leaving citizens with slow connections and blocked platforms but no transparent explanation or avenue of appeal," Antonopoulos said in the report.
Source: IANS
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