Internet Restrictions.

The Lahore High Court sought replies from the government and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority on Thursday for blocking mobile internet and social media applications such as twitter and Facebook. The fact that successive governments have somehow decided that this is an effective tool to curb dissent and possible violence is severely problematic. Access to information and basic services such as the internet is a fundamental right in this day and age. For the government to deprive all citizens of an essential tool as a result of a group's actions is a major problem.

There are also a whole host of experts who quite rightly point to how this strategy is ineffective at best and costly at its worst. If the government is blocking mobile broadband services, there is always the option to use landed internet. For social media applications, as we have observed since the days when YouTube was foolishly blocked for two years, VPNs exist, and are used by Pakistanis to access websites or content the government deems illegal. Blocking content has no purpose other than to slow speed for these websites, because of...