In Pakistan there is a very ferocious political conflict that is fought (also) through the Internet, social networks and YouTube: former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was removed from office last April after being disheartened in Parliament, accuses the new government of block access to your accounts to prevent him from speaking to the population. In short, to censor it.
On Saturday, Khan held an animated rally in front of a group of supporters in Islamabad: “We will not spare you,” he said among other things, the former prime minister, addressed to the agents and a judge responsible for the sedition arrest of his political adviser, Shahbaz Gill, who had urged the army to revolt against the new executive and “not to carry out illegal orders”. Sunday (yesterday), Khan was indictedon the basis of the anti-terrorism law, precisely for threats to the police and the magistrate.
Social network
What is Algospeak, the coded language to bypass algorithms and online censorship
by Emanuele Capone, Francesco Marino
The accusations against the new government and the blocking of accesses
This is where you arrive at allegations of censorship moves by Khan to the current government of Pakistan: also on Sunday, the country’s Communications Authority banned television from broadcasting Khan’s speeches and suspended access to his YouTube channel (which is this) on the occasion of another rally, held by the former prime minister in Rawalpindi. In addition, ARY TV, the private television channel that had broadcast Gill’s declarations, would also be blocked: “This fascist and import government has reached new levels of baseness”, commented Khan. on Twitter (where it has nearly 18 million followers)including accusing the United States of orchestrating its removal from power.
twitter: Khan’s comment on the blocking of his channel
The case
Why are internet blackouts more and more prevalent?
by Andrea Daniele Signorelli
The news agency Reuters tried to contact the Pakistan Communications Authority, but received no response: at the moment, all the social profiles of Khan and his party, which is called Tehreek-e-Insaf, are accessible, at least from Italy. The situation is different with regard to Pakistan: history teaches that it would not be the first time (link above) that a government is able to selectively prevent access to some pages or areas of the Net, precisely to silence opponents or to prevent the population from organizing demonstrations or being informed about the facts. Which is something that states can manage to do without having to go through the managers of the various platforms.
In short: if it is unlikely that the new government was able to specifically block Khan’s YouTube channel (which has over 320,000 subscribers), it is definitely possible that he blocked access to YouTube for all Pakistanis. In the end, obtaining the same result.