Pakistan is the latest country to ban the use of VPNs in the country – although it isn't its first attempt.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman, retired Major-General Hafeezur Rehman, announced on August 2nd, 2024 that the organization was working on a plan to regulate the use of VPNs. It intended to only allow providers that it deems to be compliant and would block those that don’t meet its yet-to-be-announced criteria.
This follows a move by the country to restrict access to social media sites such as X (formerly known as Twitter) which has been banned since February of 2024. VPN usage surged following the ban as internet users tried to find other ways to access the site, with Surfshark, one of today's best VPNs, claiming that new user sign-ups jumped by over 300% immediately after the ban was put in place.
It seems, however, that the Pakistani government has finally had enough of people evading the ban.
Understanding the ban
The PTA claims that only 30% of internet users in Pakistan connect through a VPN but there's currently no way to verify that claim, and with many VPNs offering obfuscated connections, there’s never going to be any real way to come up with a definitive figure.
Rehman also claimed that 56% of the Pakistani population now has internet access, which works out to around 97 million people. If “only” 30% of that total is impacted by this legislation, then that's still potentially 30+ million people who will need to find another way to access the social media platform.
Potentially 30+ million people will need to find another way to access the social media platform
As mentioned above, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out, however, that this isn't the first attempt by the PTA to try and regulate VPN usage in the country. In 2020 the PTA introduced new regulations that didn't try to ban the use of VPNs, but instead required users to come forward and tell their ISPs (Internet Service Providers) that they were using a VPN.
If they wanted to keep using the VPN, then the user would then need to share their CNIC (Computerised National Identity Card) number as well as explain exactly what they would like to use the VPN for and what IP address they will be using to connect to the VPN – which would utterly defeat the point of using the VPN in the first place.
The PTA tried to claim that this move was to support the IT sector in Pakistan and to "promote the safety of telecom users" but it seems not a lot of people agreed as they again tried to get people to register their VPN usage again in 2022 with a new "simplified" process. Presumably, this second attempt was met with the same low number of takers as the first and now they've simply accepted that their citizens don’t really want to tell the government why they want to use a VPN.
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