Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has blocked Wikipedia services for not removing “unlawful” content from its website.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) reported blocking internet access to Wikipedia in the country on Saturday due to the website’s refusal to remove allegedly offensive content.
The ban comes after the website failed to remove the offending content within 48 hours.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said it had “degraded” Wikipedia services earlier on Friday because the site had ignored a previous order to remove an ‘unlawful’ continent.
Blasphemy is taken very seriously under Pakistani law, which allows capital punishment for anyone convicted of affronting Islam, said PTA.
Wikipedia is a multilingual and free online encyclopedia launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. The content of Wikipedia is written and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. It is one of the ten most popular websites as of 2022.
