X faces restrictions in Pakistan amid protests over alleged vote rigging

The social media platform continues to be inaccessible to users in Pakistan since Saturday amid protests against alleged vote manipulation.

Islamabad, Pakistan: Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, continues to remain inaccessible to users in Pakistan after internet watchdog groups started to report outages on Saturday.

NetBlocks, an organisation that monitors accessibility issues on the internet, On February 17 confirmed that a “national-scale disruption” has hit X in Pakistan in the aftermath of widespread protests in the country triggered by the alleged vote rigging in general elections.

⚠️ Confirmed: Live metrics show a new national-scale disruption to X/Twitter in #Pakistan amid escalating unrest and protests over allegations of election fraud, following a high-level resignation and public admission of vote manipulation by a senior election official pic.twitter.com/6YT73lG7SM

— NetBlocks (@netblocks) February 17, 2024

Government officials, however, have refused to acknowledge any such restriction.

Gohar Ejaz, caretaker minister for interior, told Al Jazeera that he was not aware of any such restrictions. “No knowledge. it doesn’t come under interior [ministry],” he told Al Jazeera via a WhatsApp message.

Murtaza Solangi, caretaker minister for information, also failed to respond to the questions regarding the inaccessibility.

Officials at the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the state regulatory body, did not respond to multiple questions on the closure but indicated that the PTA is only a regulatory body which enforces orders issued by the government.

While a large segment of users unable to access their X accounts since Saturday, the caretaker minister for information technology, Umar