Over 1.5m URLs blocked by PTA amid tighter online regulation -

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) blocked more than 1.54 million URLs out of 1.72 million complaints processed up to July 2026, resulting in an overall blocking rate of 89.37%, according to data from the Authority’s Web Analysis Division.

The PTA processed a total of 1,726,303 URLs during the period. Of these, 1,542,800 were blocked, 76,874 remained under review, while 106,629 complaints were rejected.

The largest number of blocked links was recorded in the “Others/Miscellaneous” category, where 891,772 of 899,415 URLs were blocked, giving a blocking rate of 99.15%.

The “Decency and Morality” category accounted for 1,065,671 blocked URLs out of 1,075,762 processed cases, representing a 99.06% blocking rate and nearly 69% of all URLs blocked by the authority.

Among major social media platforms, Facebook recorded the highest number of blocked URLs at 230,270 out of 287,362 processed. TikTok followed with 170,231 blocked URLs, while X (formerly Twitter) had 74,236.

YouTube recorded the highest blocking rate among the major platforms, with 66,290 of 74,823 URLs blocked, or 88.6%. WhatsApp had 50,165 URLs blocked, representing 90.53% of processed cases, while Instagram recorded 45,510 blocked URLs, or 83.76%.

Other platforms also faced restrictions, including SnackVideo with 7,225 blocked URLs, Bigo/Likee with 6,539 and Dailymotion with 562.

The PTA also blocked 141,897 URLs related to terrorism, 112,482 concerning content classified as against the “Glory of Islam”, and 74,059 linked to security and defence-related complaints.

Meanwhile, 52,776 URLs involving sectarian or hate speech were blocked, along with 17,356 for defamatory or impersonation-related content and 7,716 for contempt of court. The authority also blocked 10,318 out of 10,319 processed proxy website URLs.

The figures underline the scale of Pakistan’s online content regulation, with nearly nine in every 10 URLs processed by the PTA blocked by July 2026. – ERMD