Users across Pakistan have been experiencing significant difficulty accessing social media platform Facebook since Tuesday evening (9th of Muharram), leading to widespread frustration and speculation among the online community.
Reports indicate that a number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Pakistan did not have access to Facebook on Tuesday and Wednesday, with users taking to other social media platforms such as X (formerly known as Twitter) to express their concerns.
Despite the growing number of complaints, Facebook’s parent organization Meta and internet monitoring service NetBlock have so far confirmed no issues affecting the platform’s availability in Pakistan. This lack of confirmation has left many users confused and searching for answers.
Some users have speculated whether the government may have imposed a ban on Facebook, especially in light of recent proposals to restrict access to social media during the religious observance of Muharram.
In addition, Downdetector, which tracks outages by collecting status reports from multiple sources, including users, showed that users reported problems accessing Facebook and Facebook Messenger shortly after 11pm on Tuesday, which continued throughout Wednesday.
On 4 July, the Punjab government submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs proposing to shut down key social media platforms, including YouTube and Facebook, from the 6th Muharram to the 11th of Muharram for security reasons.
However, this proposal was rejected by the government, which decided not to continue with the shutdown of social networks.
Current access issues have reignited concerns and debates about internet censorship and the government’s role in regulating social media platforms. Users have reported issues ranging from not being able to log into their Facebook accounts to the platform being completely inaccessible.
