Testing for Internet Filtering in Pakistan
Correction: Two inaccessible sites, jihadwatch.org and sindhtoday.net were initially reported here as jihadwatch.com and sindhtoday.com. The correct sites end with .org and .net.
The media climate in Pakistan has become significantly more restricted in the past few weeks, with government forcing many TV and radio stations off the air, and some receiving visits from police. Cell phone jamming has also been reported. In addition, there is a ban on the selling or importing of digital receivers, decoders and dish antenna, primarily to stop people looking for independent news sources. The Internet, however, appears to have remained somewhat more tamper-free, and some Pakistani sites have seen an increase in traffic and activity, as those with Internet access go to blogs and online media outlets for news, and information about the ongoing protests.
Beginning November 6, through a proxy server in-country, ONI replicated some of the testing for Internet filtering that was done in January 2007. Surprisingly, on November 6, no sites that were tested were found to be blocked in Pakistan. This included extremist sites such as sindhtoday.net, balochestan.com, hinduunity.com and jihadwatch.org, despite being consistently blocked in the past. However, these sites were all found to be unavailable by November 12. Also interesting to note, of the danish cartoon sites blocked recently, some of them have been hacked and the rest have been unblocked, contrary to expectations.
Daily tests of a small number of sites across ISPs have found that sites covering the current crisis—blogs and larger media outlets—have not been blocked. The sharp rise in the repression of the traditional media has not spilled over into the Internet sphere, leaving open an avenue for the free exchange of ideas and dissent, albeit only available to a much smaller portion of the population.
Fears of greater crackdown are growing, however. For example, according to an ONI source, it has been reported that there may be monitoring of Internet traffic at the level of the Pakistan Internet Exchange. We continue to monitor developments there.
