Wordpress sites are currently unavailable in Pakistan after a blanket ban on the domain was implemented over the weekend. The blog hosting platform is home to millions of blogs, and there is no word on how long the ban will last. Sources claim that the ban was put in place for national security reasons, possibly in conjunction with Pakistan Day.
Pakistan has been known to temporarily block websites for content the government finds offensive. Most of these sites are eventually brought back online; although some, as in the case of Youtube, appear to have been banned indefinitely. ProPakistan has quoted a source saying that the ban would be lifted in a couple of days, which strengthens the speculation that it has something to do with the national day celebrations.
A different source from HackRead claims that the ban was due to Wordpress being used by a terrorist group, called Tehreek Taliban Pakistan, who are active in the country. It looks like the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has decided to completely ban the domain, instead of selectively taking down the targeted blogs. Although, this has been the PTA’s modus operandi for many years.
The Pakistani government has not commented on the ban, but it is unlikely to be making a statement on the matter. Until then, internet goers in the country will just have to live without their Wordpress hosted sites for a while.
[Source: TechCrunch]
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