The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) blocked 88,035 unlawful and immoral URLs across social media platforms and the internet during the fiscal year 2024-25, according to official documents.
The authority reported a 20 percent decline in the annual upload of immoral content on social media, attributing the reduction to sustained regulatory enforcement. During the same period last year, PTA had blocked 109,771 URLs, indicating a year-on-year decrease in the volume of unlawful online material.
PTA officials said the decline is the result of improved monitoring mechanisms and continuous coordination with social media platforms under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016.
Platform-wise data shows that TikTok recorded the highest number of blocked links, with 35,000 web pages taken down during the year. Facebook followed with 25,482 blocked pages, while Instagram saw 13,242 URLs restricted. YouTube also faced enforcement action, with 8,586 links blocked for hosting unlawful content.
A further breakdown reveals that 38,214 websites were blocked for hosting immoral material. Another 31,313 web pages containing content against Pakistan’s defence and security were restricted. Content deemed against the glory of Islam led to the blocking of 7,608 URLs, while 6,269 websites carrying hate or sectarian material were shut down.
The documents also show that 2,498 URLs containing defamatory content were blocked, along with 353 websites involved in contempt of court cases. Enforcement actions extended to other platforms as well, including X (formerly Twitter) with 2,103 URLs blocked, Likee with 991, and Snack Video with 345 web pages restricted, highlighting the broad scope of PTA’s content regulation efforts.
Good to see this ❤️