Pakistan blocks WordPress in the name of National Day security

The blogging platform WordPress, used by millions of bloggers around the world, has been blocked in Pakistan, blogs from Pakistan report.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has asked ISPs (internet service providers) to block access to WordPress.com, says ProPakistani. This makes all blogs hosted on WordPress inaccessible. Self-hosted sites powered by WordPress, including Tech in Asia, are not affected by this.

It is Pakistan’s National Day today, marking the Lahore Resolution of March 23, 1940, which paved the way for the formation of Pakistan. Although there’s no official word on the reason for blocking WordPress, Pakistani blogs attribute it to “security issues” over content on WordPress.

Pakistani authorities have often been skittish over the internet. Facebook was blocked in 2010, and YouTube continues to be blocked since 2012 when a film on Islam sparked an outrage.

ProPakistani quotes an unnamed source in PTA to suggest that the block on WordPress will be lifted shortly after National Day. The source refused to reveal what exactly had caused concern.

Neighboring India has been equally quick to block websites in the name of security. Earlier this year, 32 websites including Vimeo and Github were blocked for purveying “jihadi propaganda.”

As for the other neighbor China, the number of websites getting blocked are almost too many to track. The latest to face the Great Firewall block is the global news wire service Reuters.

Source: ProPakistani