Pakistan Ranks third for Most Internet Shutdowns in 2023

Lahore: Pakistan has been ranked third in the world, after Iran and India, for internet restrictions in the first half of 2023. 

This is shown in a research published by Lithuania-based virtual private network provider Surfshark that was based on an examination of internet shutdowns tracked by the Internet Shutdown Tracker over the course of a half-year.

According to the article, Pakistan imposed limitations three times after the former prime minister was taken into custody on May 9.

Access to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube was at the time blocked in the nation, and there were a few brief cellular network outages that lasted for many days.

The Surfshark study focuses on Asia because there were more reported internet outages there than anywhere else at the time.

Further, Iran is leading the list of the most internet disruptions, with 14, all of which occurred in Zahedan during Friday protests over the massacre.