Pakistan will restrict social media platforms for six days to regulate ‘hate propaganda’ during Ramadan.
LAHORE: After successfully blocking X, formerly Twitter, for over four months, the Pakistani government has announced a six-day ban on all social media platforms, including YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok, from July 13 to 18, citing the need to control “hate material” during the Islamic month of Ramadan.
According to a Punjab government notification issued late Thursday night, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s cabinet committee on law and order has recommended that all social media platforms, including YouTube, X, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok, be banned from 6 to 11 Muharram (July 13-18) in Punjab, a province of over 120 million people, to “control hate material and misinformation to avoid sectarian violence.”
Maryam Nawaz’s Punjab government has urged that her uncle Shehbaz Sharif’s government at the Centre suspend all social media platforms on the internet for six days (July 13–18).