‘How we find new ways to embarrass ourselves internationally’: Twitter not happy with Wikipedia ban
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Friday blocked Wikipedia in the country for not removing sacrilegious content from the website.
“Action was taken because some of the content is still available on Wikipedia after the expiry of a 48-hour deadline,” wrote Bloomberg while quoting a spokesperson of the telecom regulator.
Earlier this week PTA restricted access to Wikipedia for Pakistanis for 48 hours.
In a series of tweets from its official Twitter account, PTA has said that the free online encyclopedia had “sacrilegious” content, despite being asked by PTA to remove it.
The access to the website will be resumed in Pakistan after the removal of the sacrilegious content.
Twitter is reacting to the ban, with most people criticising the ban on one of the world’s largest crowd-sourced platforms.
Have a look at the reactions:
Wikipedia, World’s largest encyclopaedia, appears to be blocked in Pakistan by @PTAofficialpk
— Usama Khilji (@UsamaKhilji) February 3, 2023
Courts & regulator must realise that Wikipedia is a crowd-sourced platform where anyone with an account can edit articles, which they can also do instead of blocking the entire website pic.twitter.com/wIEZzGktio
Pakistan just blocked Wikipedia.
— Umar Saif (@umarsaif) February 4, 2023
It amazes me how we find innovative new ways to embarrass ourselves internationally on a regular basis …
https://twitter.com/nmemon2004/status/1621802574893518848It is now confirmed that Wikipedia has been blocked in Pakistan. The action is regressive, harmful for Pakistan’s global image and shows a lack of understanding how crowd sourced/edited online information platforms work. PTA & Government need to review this decision immediately.
— Taimur Malik (@taimur_malik) February 4, 2023