ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has announced plans to block the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) nationwide, according to local media reports on Friday.
PTA Chairman Hafeezur Rehman revealed during a meeting of the Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat that only government-approved VPNs will be permitted once the new policy takes effect.
This decision follows a dramatic increase in VPN usage in 2024, particularly to access the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), which was blocked earlier this year. According to a report by Top10VPN, demand for VPNs surged by 131 percent on February 19, two days after X was banned. Surfshark, a VPN provider, reported a 300-400 percent increase in new user registrations in Pakistan following the ban.
Rehman noted that the number of X users in Pakistan has decreased by 70 percent since the ban, with only 30 percent accessing the platform through VPNs. However, the high rate of VPN use to bypass the ban raises concerns about the policy’s effectiveness.
The PTA Chairman also cautioned that a blanket VPN ban could jeopardize several IT businesses that rely on VPNs for their operations.
This move is not the PTA’s first attempt to regulate VPNs; previous efforts, including a 2010 regulation and a 2022 registration drive, have seen limited success.
