PTA Reports 88% Overall Blocking Rate in Social Media Content

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has disclosed that it sent 1,789,022 URLs to social media platforms for action, resulting in an overall blocking rate of 88.20 percent. Of the URLs sent, 1,577,936 were blocked, leaving 83,740 under review and 127,346 rejected. The PTA maintains a database of around 1.5 million URLs, which are continuously verified and re-verified to ensure accuracy.

The breakdown by platform reveals Facebook handling 311,699 URLs, with 244,981 blocked; Instagram processed 58,729 URLs, blocking 46,704; Twitter processed 162,878 URLs, of which 78,871 were blocked; YouTube processed 76,153 URLs, blocking 66,514; TikTok processed 208,268 URLs, of which 184,686 were blocked; and WhatsApp processed 900,222 URLs, of which 891,772 were blocked.

The remaining 55,414 WhatsApp URLs were also blocked. PTA asserts that all complaints and online content complaints are evaluated based on the applicable legal framework, and when legally authorized, regulatory and technical measures are implemented, such as requesting platform or service providers to act against unlawful content.