We, the Pakistanis, are very much familiar with the concept of banning. Let it be movies, social media platforms, or certain online content, we know the conviction of a ban in our society.
Consequently, a stark assertion often echoes in the news that VPNs are being banned, and their use is illegal and unlawful. This rhetoric, which is being intensified through government edicts and policy pressures, puts the Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in the role of subversion only. But is banning really the required or indeed the effective solution?
Pakistan has a long and indeterminate history of internet restriction, infamous for restricting social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube from 2012-2016.
This pattern of censorship extends beyond the web to the very screens in our living rooms; mainstream media outlets and channels have all faced various transmission suspensions or temporary bans over the years, often triggered by political friction or regulatory directives.
Even entertainment and niche platforms have not been immune, with temporary bans previously slapped on TikTok, and even the mobile game PUBG on the grounds of “moral preservation.” What good did these blanket bans accomplish? Nothing, but a huge spike in the use of the very VPN they tried to restrict, proving that restricting the tool will be futile if the demand for access still exists.
The struggle for the control of VPNs in Pakistan is not new. In the last decade, official efforts have also changed repeatedly, alternating between threats of a full-fledged ban and compulsory registration of businesses and freelancers.
Later in 2024, this discussion was heated again with a demand by the Interior Ministry to ban illegal VPNs. However, this threat was later withdrawn, owing to the opinion of the Law Ministry, that the current legislation, such as the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), only allows blocking “content” and not the “tools” themselves.
This legislative complexity combined with the fact that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has successfully processed over 31000 VPN registrations proves that the answer is not ban, but governance.
But what actually is VPN for a layman? ‘A VPN is a Virtual Private Network; a simple, yet powerful, technology that creates a digital tunnel between a user’s device and the internet through which all of the data passes in an encrypted format’.
When a user begins a connection, the system performs two functions: First, ‘Data Encryption’ which scrambles the data to protect it from hackers accessing the data on a public Wi-Fi or surveillance from the third party. Second, ‘IP Masking’ which routes the connection through a remote server, as if the user was accessing the internet from a different geographic location.
Such dual mechanism has an attractive advantage that is critical to the contemporary economy of Pakistan. VPNs are of fundamental importance to corporate security, where remote workers and banks can comfortably access internal networks. They are indispensable for the rapidly growing IT industry, including freelancers and software houses – which export earnings recently exceeded $3 billion.
It enables them to secure their connection with international clients and platforms. However, this very potent technology is transformed into a double-edged sword when it is operated by malicious actors.
The greatest reason for government regulation derived from the abuse of unregistered VPNs by terrorist and extremist groups. These groups consider VPN as an ‘encrypted cloak’ for their digital activities.
They use the encryption to plan and coordinate the attacks and their communications become invisible to intelligence agencies. Crucially, they employ IP masking to get around content moderation and regional blocks of social media platforms, and they are perpetually spreading radicalizing narratives and propaganda while effectively evading
Beyond terrorism, this lack of regulation makes it easier for cybercrime to be widespread. Hackers and fraudsters can operate without any hurdles and the national economy becomes weaker as people are encouraged to evade taxes digitally.
Additionally, the piracy of any copyrighted material is also made easier. The reality is stark: Banning is never an option! A ban will force legitimate users and IT businesses to find less secure, foreign-based, and less detectable workarounds that can result in estimated operational losses as much as $150 million per year for the IT sector alone.
The answer opens the door for clear and profound reforms on regulating the VPN ecosystem.
This approach is confirmed by international trends. India, for instance, does not ban VPNs but requires service providers to collect and store detailed information about users for several years, so that the anonymity offered by the tool is suspended only when a crime is suspected. Similarly, China limits the use of VPNs to government-licensed and compliant VPNs in an effort to control the flow of data across borders.
So, many countries in the world have strict laws against illegal activity made while using VPNs, as it should be correct, which targets the crime not a tool.
With the already successful registration effort whereby thousands of organizations have already registered, Pakistan can codify a framework that distinguishes safe, licensed VPNs and the dangerous, unregulated apps that are used to facilitate crimes.
The focus has to be on targeted enforcement against criminal activities, and not just a blanket ban. Pakistan must go beyond the theory of banning anything outright and should employ strong regulations to protect its digital borders from every kind of threat which will, in return, pave a path for its digital economy to thrive securely.
