After scrutiny, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has banned 6,149 websites out of a total 46,200 sites that were scanned over the past year.

The recommendation to block the websites were given by Ministry of Religious Affairs and Inter-faith Harmony’s Web Evaluation Cell (WEC).

The Blocked Websites

The WEC sent complaints about 15,481 domains to PTA after evaluating a total of 46,200 websites. Out of those 15,481 complaints, PTA blocked 6,149 websites after evaluation.

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PTA, together with Higher Education Commission (HEC), previously launched an awareness program to filter the inappropriate content at all educational institutions. Additional Attorney General (AAG) Nayyar Rizvi added that a total of 9,846 proxies have been installed at educational institutes already.

PTA, a few months ago, submitted a report in the Supreme Court saying a total of 0.4 million websites with obscene content have been blocked in Pakistan. The report added that it is impossible to vet and block the content online in real time. However, proxies can be used to cut down such content by a considerable margin, the report added.

The Web Evaluation Cell has been established to monitor and report any content that promotes sectarianism and objectionable material.