Regional shutdown
Balochistan
Local authorities in Pakistan's Balochistan province ordered that mobile Internet and cellphone services in parts of the province be suspended from 14 to 17 July during the religious festival of Muharram. A spokesperson for the Balochistan Home Ministry said that the suspension will affect Quetta, Kachhi, Jhal Magsi, Jaffarabad, and Usta Muhammad. Similar directives have been issued in Pakistan's Punjab province, where mobile Internet services and popular social media services have been partially suspended.
- Total Duration 3 days
Pakistan
- Population
- 247,504,495
Freedom House rates Internet freedom as Not Free
Local impact
Local authorities in Pakistan's Balochistan province ordered that mobile Internet and cellphone services in parts of the province be suspended from 14 to 17 July during the religious festival of Muharram. A spokesperson for the Balochistan Home Ministry said that the suspension will affect Quetta, Kachhi, Jhal Magsi, Jaffarabad, and Usta Muhammad. Similar directives have been issued in Pakistan's Punjab province, where mobile Internet services and popular social media services have been partially suspended.
Other supporting information
It’s difficult to measure the effect of local/regional Internet shutdowns as most measurements are done at a country level. However, as this event is happening in multiple provinces in Pakistan, there are noticeable drops in Internet traffic and anomalies in Internet services.Google Transparency Report shows a decrease in regular traffic to Google Web Search between 16 and 17 July.
The OONI Web Connectivity Test also shows that on 17 July, most measurements for www.facebook.com and www.instagram.com resulted in anomalies (signals of potential censorship). Note access to X (formerly Twitter) has been compromised for some time in Pakistan.
OONI data also suggest that since 17 July, there have been connectivity anomalies and failures for Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp (both owned by Facebook and Instagram's parent company, Meta). However, it is difficult to confirm these blocking events with confidence, given the regional focus of the shutdown and blocking event.
Note that access to Telegram in Pakistan has been compromised for some time, though there have been a similar number of failures as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger tests since 18 July.
