Pakistan recorded a 20 percent drop in the volume of “immoral content” uploaded online during the fiscal year 2024–25 after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) blocked more than 88,000 unlawful URLs, official documents revealed.
The documents showed that the PTA blocked 88,035 URLs across social media platforms and the wider internet during the year as compared to last year’s 109,771 links – reflecting a year-on-year reduction in the number of identified unlawful webpages.
PTA officials said the decline was linked to continued enforcement measures, enhanced monitoring systems and coordination with social media companies under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016.
Platform-specific data indicated that TikTok accounted for the highest number of blocked links with 35,000 webpages removed during the reporting period. Facebook ranked second with 25,482 URLs blocked, Instagram where 13,242 links were restricted and YouTube with 8,586 URLs blocked for hosting unlawful material.
The documents further detailed the nature of the content removed during the year. A total of 38,214 websites were blocked for hosting “immoral material”. Another 31,313 webpages were restricted for content related to Pakistan’s defence and security.
Content classified as being against the glory of Islam led to the blocking of 7,608 URLs. In addition, 6,269 websites were taken down for hosting hate or sectarian material.
The PTA also blocked 2,498 URLs containing defamatory content. A further 353 websites were restricted in connection with contempt of court cases.
Enforcement actions also extended to X with 2,103 URLs blocked on X.
On Likee, 991 web pages were restricted while 345 URLs were blocked on Snack Video during the same period.