Ban on Wikipedia lifted in Pakistan

The ban imposed on the encyclopedia website Wikipedia by the Pakistani authorities has been lifted on Tuesday. A few days ago, this website was blocked for not removing blasphemous content about the Prophet of Islam.

According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, this website has been reopened on the order of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. The decision was heavily criticized on social media after Wikipedia was banned. Millions of users in Pakistan use this encyclopedia website to get information.

On Monday, the Wikimedia Foundation told AFP news agency that it had received reports that the PTA had been ordered to restore access to Wikipedia and that online traffic to the website would soon resume. will be restored.

Pakistan’s Internet services regulator, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), blocked access to Wikipedia in the country late last week for not complying with orders to publish and remove “offensive” content. .

According to the Prime Minister’s written order, he had issued orders to constitute a committee comprising three government ministers and entrusted it with the responsibility of examining the PTA’s decision to block Wikipedia. According to their written order, the committee has concluded that the “unintended consequences of a blanket ban on Wikipedia outweigh its benefits.” Another committee consisting of ministers will also be constituted for further investigation.

In this regard, a Wikimedia spokesperson said that Pakistanis rely on Wikipedia to get information and share it with others. “Removing this ban means that Pakistanis will continue to benefit from and participate in the development of an international campaign that aims to spread and share verified, reliable and free information.”

Since the ban on Wikipedia has been lifted, there is also the question of whether any steps have been taken to remove “obscene content” from the online encyclopedia. When the same question was asked to Wikimedia, there was no immediate response from him.

But Wikimedia had previously clarified in a statement that the foundation does not make decisions about content published on Wikipedia and its online maintenance. She said she supports and respects the editorial decisions of the community of editors around the world.