Pakistan’s media regulator said today, Monday, that it has blocked Wikipedia’s services in the country for hurting the feelings of Muslims by failing to remove allegedly blasphemous content from the site.

Critics condemned Islamabad’s move, saying it was a blow to digital rights.

Under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or its holy figures can be sentenced to death, although the country has not yet introduced the death penalty for blasphemy.

But even allegations of wrongdoing are often enough to provoke mob violence or even fatal attacks. International and national rights groups say blasphemy charges have often been used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal scores.

According to an agency spokesman, the Telecommunications Authority of Pakistan blocked Wikipedia because the 48-hour deadline for content removal was ignored. “Things like this hurt the feelings of Muslims,” Malahat Obeid said of the regulator.

He said the Pakistani authorities are in talks with Wikipedia officials and the ban could be lifted if the platform completely removes anti-Islamic content.

The Wikimedia Foundation on Saturday confirmed the ban, saying, “We hope that the government of Pakistan will join our commitment to knowledge as a human right and immediately restore access to Wikipedia and Wikimedia so that the people of Pakistan can continue to receive and share their knowledge with the world.”

Mohsin Raza Khan, a Pakistani social media expert, said it’s easy to update or replace Wikipedia content that is considered blasphemous or offensive to Muslims, so blocking the site is not a solution.

“Pakistan’s media regulator and other authorities should try to find a viable technical solution to such problems as blasphemous content is available everywhere,” he said. “It’s a drop in the ocean of knowledge.”

The Lahore-based Digital Rights Foundation previously called the Wikipedia ban an affront to Pakistanis’ right to access information and a mockery of the country’s commitment to upholding its human rights obligations.

Pakistan has suspended TikTok twice in the past for allegedly uploading “immoral, obscene and vulgar” content.

However, the ban was later lifted after TikTok assured Pakistan that it would remove immoral content and ban users uploading “illegal content”. The app was downloaded millions of times in Pakistan when the ban was introduced in 2020 and 2021.

Also in 2008, Pakistan banned YouTube over videos depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims generally believe that any physical depiction of the Prophet of Islam is blasphemous.

Source: Associated Press.