Late on Sunday, millions of people in Pakistan encountered slow internet services and disruptions on major social media platforms during a virtual meeting organized by the former ruling political party, PTI.
Popular platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook experienced outages, but they have since been restored in the country.
The disruption began around 8 pm on Sunday, coinciding with a virtual rally organized by the PTI, which was being live-streamed on various social media platforms. Users in different parts of Pakistan reported difficulties accessing these platforms and expressed frustration over slow internet speeds.
While mobile internet services were partially restored late at night, full restoration of social media apps occurred in the early hours of the following day.
However, this decision to temporarily shut down these services faced criticism from human rights activists and citizens, who argued that it infringed upon the right to freedom of expression.
Netblocks, an internet outage watchdog, provided information about the timing of the disruption. The outage during the virtual PTI rally affected users across the country, leading to widespread concerns about the impact on communication and the ability to access information.
The incident involved a significant disruption to internet services and social media platforms in Pakistan during a political event, prompting criticism and debate about the balance between national security concerns and the right to freedom of expression.
