2,384 child porn sites blocked, PTA tells senate panel

Says received 28 complaints against child porn but claims such content not uploaded from country

ISLAMABAD: The country’s telecommunication authority on Wednesday told a parliamentary panel that it has blocked over 800,000 websites and 11,000 internet proxies containing pornographic content on the internet but has no proof that such content is uploaded also from Pakistan.

“The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has also blocked 2,384 websites containing child pornography until now. Pakistan is in continuous contact with Interpol regarding the issue. The authority has so far received 28 complaints against child pornography.

“However, porn is continued to be accessed in the country through VPN [Virtual Private Network] and proxies. The PTA has so far blocked 11,000 proxies,” said the PTA Chairman Amir Azeem Bajwa while briefing Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication on Wednesday.

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He said there is no evidence that pornographic material is also uploaded from Pakistan. The PTA, he said, is working to introduce a new system for monitoring of the VPN and has sought advice from Google regarding monitoring of the pornographic content.

“Google has held an extensive review of all sources used to access porn in Pakistan. It has taken up the matter seriously and lauded Pakistan for its strong vigilance against porn. The trend of porn access is on the decline,” he added.

The PTA chairman said the authority never turns down any request against presence of any explicit content on any URL. “People should not send detailed requests. Rather, they should just inform the PTA about the URL so that we can block it after a brief check.”

Committee Chairman Rubina Khalid urged the PTA also to formulate a strategy against social media propaganda. She said some social media accounts spread false news that 560kg gold was seized from her house. “I launched a complaint with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on July 12,” she said.

The PTA chairman said fake social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook is a serious issue. “However, we do not have representatives of the two social media platforms here in Pakistan,” he said.

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Committee member Senator Rehman Malik said the committee has been considering the case as a petition. The FIA should present its report to the committee within seven days, he said.

The FIA cybercrime wing director told the committee that the agency has written a letter to Facebook in this regard and would receive a report for the social media platform within seven weeks.

Rubina Khalid said the culprits are in Pakistan so it is not understandable why the FIA is writing a letter to Facebook. “Things like these are happening from inside the country,” she said.

Malik said if the issue is not addressed, then the prime minister could also be affected by such scandals. I call this a black propaganda, he added.

The committee was told that a meeting with Ufone was held to improve provision of cellular mobile coverage in Malakand division of Khyber Pakhtunkwa (K-P). The PTA said its negotiations in this regard with other cellular mobile operators (CMOs) were also under way.

The committee was told that a letter had been written to all CMOs and Universal Service Fund (USF) to take necessary measures to improve coverage in Malakand. The CMOs had installed one hundred and five cellular towers to provide mobile coverage in the area.

The chairperson constituted a sub-committee to come up with recommendation in order to ensure protection of government department websites and to overcome cybercrime.

WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FRON APP