As a result of not “blocking/removing sacrilegious information,” Wikipedia services in Pakistan were reduced for 48 hours, according to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
The telecom regulator said in a statement that it had contacted Wikipedia, a free online encyclopaedia, to request that the offending content be blocked or removed by filing a notification under “relevant law and court order(s)”.
“An opportunity of hearing was also provided, however, the platform neither complied by removing the blasphemous content nor appeared before the authority,” the statement issued by PTA read.
“Given the intentional failure on part of the platform to comply with the directions of PTA, the services of Wikipedia have been degraded for 48 hours with the direction to block/remove the reported content,” it added.
Wikipedia would be blocked in the nation if the regulator’s warning was disregarded, and its restoration would be “reconsidered subject to blocking/removal of the reported unlawful content.”
The authority has already taken note of undesirable content on the platform. The PTA has sent warnings to Google Inc. and Wikipedia in December 2020 for “disseminating sacrilegious content.”
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