ISLAMABAD: Top10VPN-an independent VPN review site- reported that demand for the usage of Virtual Private Network (VPN) services had been more than tripled in Pakistan following a sharp increase in social media restrictions.
Authorities from Pakistan suspended mobile Internet services and blocked several VPNs during the PTI protest march to the capital.
Reports say that the government in Pakistan has been banning the use of VPNs for weeks now. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has said that businesses and freelancers would legally use VPNs registered with the government; otherwise, all unregistered VPNs will be blocked in Pakistan starting November 30.
Digital Rights activists said that the government’s move is part of efforts to block tools that allow users to bypass the restrictions placed on them. VPN usage has risen in Pakistan since February this year when the government banned X.
“Use of VPN services increased during the day by 102 percent in Pakistan on November 24 when compared with the 28-day average daily usage prior to it,” reported Top10VPN.
The PTI initiated its ‘long march’ protest to the federal capital, Islamabad, on Nov. 24.
VPN demand soared the following day [Monday], to 253 percent above baseline on November 25, and continues strong,” said the site. “The surge followed reports that WhatsApp had been targeted by the authorities.
As a result, users across the world faced trouble without VPN with WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
Downdetector.com -a tracking website for several social media services, confirmed that popular sites had technical issues in Pakistan.
In August, the PBC had warned that too frequent Internet disruptions and low speeds due to firewall use had led many multinational firms to shift their offices out of Pakistan.
Pakistan Software Houses Association, the top representative of the IT sector in the country, warned last week that Internet slowdowns and restrictions in VPN services would lead to financial losses and increase operational costs for the industry by up to $150 million per annum.
“If the VPNs are blocked, most IT companies, Call Centers, BPO [business process outsourcing] organisations of Pakistan will lose all the major Fortune 500 clients, as well as others – as data protection and cybersecurity are of paramount importance to our clients, and connecting to client systems through VPN is a global norm and standard,” Pakistan Software Houses Association Chairman Sajjad Mustafa Syed said in a statement.
According to industry data, Pakistan IT exports from Pakistan were increasing by about 30 percent on average per year and were on their way to achieving more than $15 billion in the next 5 years.
