The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has been busy in recent months, working to block a total of more than 20,000 URLs that were involved in unlawful activities. According to documents obtained by ProPakistani, the PTA has processed a total of 1,226,890 URLs for blocking as of December 22, 2022, up from 1,206,876 URLs on September 22 of the same year. Of these 1,226,890 URLs, 1,153,722 were successfully blocked by social media platforms, while 62,692 are still accessible. The social media platforms rejected the blocking of 10,467 URLs.
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Facebook was the recipient of the most blocking requests from the PTA, with 140,221 URLs being sent for blocking as of December 22. Of these, 118,210 were successfully blocked, while 17,529 are still accessible. Facebook rejected the blocking of 4,482 URLs processed by the PTA.
Instagram received a total of 11,950 URLs from the PTA for blocking, of which 8,944 were successfully blocked and 2,835 are still accessible. The platform rejected the blocking of 171 URLs. Twitter received 67,166 URLs for blocking, of which 34,010 were successfully blocked and 30,065 are still accessible. The platform rejected the blocking of 3,091 URLs.
Youtube was requested to block a total of 45,502 URLs by the PTA, of which 38,587 were successfully blocked and 4,714 are still accessible. Youtube rejected the blocking of 2,192 URLs. TikTok received 71,372 URLs for blocking, of which 70,162 were successfully blocked and 959 are still accessible. The platform rejected the blocking of 251 URLs.
Likee was sent 1,036 URLs for blocking by the PTA, of which 971 were successfully blocked and 65 are still accessible. No URLs were rejected by the platform. SnackVideo received 3,895 URLs for blocking, of which 3,822 were successfully blocked and 67 are still accessible. The platform rejected the blocking of 6 URLs.
Dailymotion was sent 591 URLs for blocking, of which 545 were successfully blocked and 32 are still accessible. The platform rejected the blocking of 14 URLs. Other social media platforms received requests to block a total of 885,157 URLs, of which 878,471 were successfully blocked and 6,426 are still accessible. These platforms rejected the blocking of 260 URLs.
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According to the PTA, these URLs were received from various sources and through proactive searching. The PTA has set up a dedicated email and a Complaint Management System (CMS) for citizens to report objectionable content. Complaints can be lodged through the CMS portal or in writing through any other appropriate means, with full disclosure.