Pakistan blocks Wikipedia citing ‘sacrilegious’ content

Pakistan has banned Wikipedia after threatening the crowd-sourced online encyclopedia over what it has labelled “sacrilegious content”, the Wikimedia Foundation announced on February 4.

Social media giants Facebook and Youtube have also been blocked in the past by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority over content deemed blasphemous, a highly sensitive issue in Muslim-majority Pakistan. Their ban was lifted.

According to local media outlet Dawn, a PTA spokesperson said the website was blocked due to non-compliance with the institution’s order.

The PTA said the website had until late February 3 to heed the warning, without elaborating on the content in question, Al Jazeera reports.

“PTA has degraded Wikipedia services in the country on account of not blocking/removing sacrilegious contents,” the authority added.

In response to the PTA, the Wikimedia Foundation – which runs Wikipedia – called on Pakistani authorities to restore access to the website.

“We believe that access to knowledge is a human right. A block of Wikipedia in Pakistan denies the 5th most populous nation in the world access to the largest free knowledge repository,” it posted on Twitter on Saturday.

“We hope that the Pakistan government joins us in a commitment to knowledge as a human right and restores access to Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects promptly so that the people of Pakistan can continue to receive and share knowledge with the world.”