ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to block illegal Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) operating in the country, citing national security concerns.
The Ministry of Interior, in a letter to the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA), stated that VPNs are increasingly being exploited by terrorists to facilitate violent activities and financial transactions.
“Of late, an alarming trend has been identified, where VPNs are used by terrorists to obscure and conceal their communications,” the letter said.
The letter further explained that VPNs, which protect users by encrypting their identities, data, and IP addresses, are also being misused to access prohibited and pornographic content.
According to a Microsoft blog, VPNs hide browsing activity, identity, and physical location, protecting users’ personal data.
However, the Interior Ministry warned that VPNs, which are considered illegal in Pakistan, are being used to access pornographic and blasphemous content.
“Pakistan is considered one of the countries where pornographic sites are frequently visited via VPNs,” the letter said, adding that these trends justify the prohibition of unauthorised VPNs to address these critical security threats.
“It is, therefore, requested that illegal VPNs be blocked across Pakistan so that legitimate, registered VPN users are not affected. In addition, VPN registration with the PTA should be completed by November 30, 2024.”
In a statement in September, the PTA had said the government would not block VPNs outright, but urged IT companies, software houses, banks, freelancers, and others to register their IPs.
On Thursday, the PTA introduced a new method for registration of VPNs to streamline the process initiated in August through what it called a ‘one-window’ operation on the telecommunications regulator and software export board websites.
The PTA, in a statement released on Wednesday last, said that around 20 million Pakistanis attempt to access pornographic websites daily, which are blocked at international gateways.
“So far, the PTA has blocked a total of 100,183 blasphemous URLs and 844,008 pornographic websites,” the statement read. Users, however, often bypass these blocks by using VPNs to access restricted websites, the PTA added.
Earlier today, Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir, addressing a special session at the Margalla Dialogue 2024 in the capital, said that technology has played an important role in the dissemination of misinformation.
He said that “the spread of misleading and incorrect information is a major challenge,” and added that unrestricted freedom of speech was “contributing to the degradation of moral values in all societies.”
It is also pertinent to mention that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s police chief, Akhtar Hayat Gandapur, said in a press conference last week—following the arrest of a police officer with links to a foreign terror group and the 2023 Peshawar mosque bombing—that terrorists are using social media for news recruitments and communications.
