Updated Friday, November 15, 2024, Council on Islamic Ideology (CII) Chairman Alamar Raghib Naemi said that using VPNs to access “immoral content” is against Shariah and asked that “illegal VPNs” be blocked.

The CII has advised Pakistan's parliament to align its laws with Islamic teachings and urged users to register VPNs to ensure traceability and promote responsible use.

The Ministry of Interior has asked the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to block “illegal VPNs.” People have until November 30 to register their VPNs with the PTA.

Many Pakistanis use VPNs to access websites restricted in their country, such as X (formerly Twitter), and to circumvent government censorship; registering a VPN means that users will be tracked, and the crackdown on VPNs in Pakistan and government s crackdown on VPNs in Pakistan is a further example of the crackdown on VPNs.

VPN users in Pakistan reported major disruptions to their services late last week (November 9-10, 2024) due to connection and access restriction issues; Downdetector reported disruptions to TunnelBear VPN and VPN Unlimited, but the highest VPNs none of the VPNs appear to have been affected.

The Proton VPN Observatory, run by the developers of one of the most secure VPNs, Proton, reported a surge in VPN usage in Pakistan on November 9. It recorded a 350% increase in VPN signups in Pakistan over the past two days.

Authorities claim that the disruption was brief due to a system glitch, but it has been suggested that this could be a sign of a further wave of repression by the Pakistani government: in February, the government banned the social media app X (formerly Twitter), and in August, the Pakistan Telecom Telecommunications Authority (PTA) reportedly cracked down on the use of VPNs with the aim of restricting access to X.

Despite X being banned in Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif tweeted his congratulations to Donald Trump on his victory in the U.S. presidential election. This led to a backlash from the Pakistani public, as X is banned in Pakistan and Shehbaz was likely using a VPN to access the app.

Pakistan is not the only country where social media and Internet use is being cracked down on. The Kenyan government ordered a shutdown of the messaging app Telegram during a national testing period from November 18-22, 2024. In Mozambique, VPN use surged in late October as social media was blocked in the wake of a wave of anti-government riots.

In Mauritius, VPN usage rose to a baseline 182,890% as social media was blocked days before government elections, according to Proton VPN data. The block lasted until November 11, the day after the election.

“This incident adds to the troubling pattern we are seeing around the world of more and more governments implementing sweeping restrictions on Internet freedom,” Lauren Lauren Hendry Parsons, Director of Communications & Advocacy at ExpressVPN. “This global shift toward digital authoritarianism undermines the foundation of an open Internet and, most importantly, our own rights.”

VPNs encrypt data, protect online privacy, and bypass IP addresses to make it appear as if you are based in another country, allowing access to content that is blocked in your own country.

It is also an important tool for circumventing government regulations and shutdowns. Government repression cannot be allowed to become the norm. People have the right to access the Internet and use VPNs. Many countries have very strict laws regarding VPNs, China and Russia are cracking down hard on VPN use, and Russia recently banned 60 VPNs.

In 2024, more than 50% of the world's population will go to the polls, making it one of the biggest years ever for democracy. However, many of these countries have a history of undermining the rights of their own citizens, and privacy advocates are fighting to combat this.

Proton is committed to fighting online censorship and defending the right to privacy. Proton provides free servers to countries that hold elections with a history of censorship and election tampering so that local people can avoid the possibility of government censorship and misinformation.