Internet watchdog reports nation-scale disruption of social media

Incident comes 'amid political turmoil after a controversial election', says NetBlocks

A nation-scale disruption of social media platform X, formerly Twitter, is being reported by users and internet watchdogs in Pakistan on Saturday.

⚠️ Confirmed: Live metrics show a nation-scale disruption to X/Twitter across #Pakistan; the incident comes amid political turmoil after a controversial election held under an internet and mobile network blackout 📉 pic.twitter.com/1sZpkbWN6L

— NetBlocks (@netblocks) February 10, 2024

NetBlocks, a global internet watchdog, said the incident comes "amid political turmoil after a controversial election held under an internet and mobile network blackout".

Pakistan on Thursday witnessed a countrywide shutdown of internet and cellular phone services during the polling process with the authorities attributing the move "to maintain law and order" in the wake of the violence that occurred a day earlier.

Read Internet, cellular services outages cripple polls

However, the suspension was denounced by Amnesty International, which described it as a “reckless attack on people’s rights”, as well as experts and political stakeholders, particularly the PTI, a political party that relied heavily on social media platforms for its electoral campaign.

In the run-up to the February 8 elections in Pakistan, the country suffered from multiple internet disruptions and slow-downs. The interim government justified the disruptions as 'technical glitches'.

Just earlier today, the Foreign Office denied that there was any wide-scale internet disruption on polling day. 

It must be noted that all internet shutdowns have coincided with virtual events organised by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).