Pakistanis are attempting up to 20 million times each day to access restricted explicit content via unregistered virtual private networks (VPNs), despite government efforts to control access.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has already blocked over 844,000 websites and more than 100,000 offensive URLs, increasing restrictions on explicit content.

In response to widespread use of unregistered VPNs to bypass blocks, complaints of slow VPN speeds have surfaced. The PTA has started blocking unauthorized VPNs, citing security risks and the need to prevent access to illegal content. To address these concerns, the PTA is accelerating the whitelisting of registered VPNs.

PTA officials highlighted that unregistered VPNs pose security threats by allowing potential unauthorized access to sensitive information. As part of these measures, certain VPNs have been temporarily restricted to facilitate registration and addition to the PTA’s whitelist.

Since the registration initiative began in 2010, approximately 20,500 VPNs have been registered, covering over 1,422 companies, with the PTA pushing for faster compliance.

The use of free VPN services has caused disruptions for many users, impacting secure browsing. The PTA has assured the public that efforts are being made to streamline the registration process while enforcing restrictions against illegal content access. Globally, VPNs are commonly used to bypass content restrictions.

Recently, Pakistan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs requested the PTA to intensify blocks on pornographic, blasphemous, and other harmful online content, expressing alarm at Pakistan's ranking as a top viewer of pornographic content and its potential negative effects on public morality.

By July 2024, the PTA had blocked around 1.3 million URLs containing “anti-Islam, indecent, and immoral” content, with recent data showing that its monitoring system had processed 1.38 million URLs, blocking 93.84% for inappropriate content.

Further reports revealed that of these blocked URLs, 1.02 million related to decency and immorality, while others covered security, defamation, sectarian hate speech, and contempt of court. The PTA also disclosed blocking 147,569 Facebook URLs, 125,600 TikTok URLs, and 53,872 Twitter URLs for explicit or offensive content.

Since 2020, TikTok has removed over 113,000 items flagged as immoral or anti-Islamic, with 24,800 removed this year alone