The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has banned popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia in the country for not \u201cblocking\/removing sacrilegious content\u201d within the 48-hour deadline given to the website, a spokesperson confirmed on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Wikipedia is a free, crowdsourced, editable online encyclopedia often used as a starting point by millions across the world for basic information.<\/p>\n
The PTA had on Wednesday degraded Wikipedia services countrywide for not complying with the directives for the removal of controversial content from the website.<\/p>\n
The regulator said the website had neither responded to its requests, nor taken down the content in question.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Dawn.com, PTA spokesperson Malahat Obaid said the ban had primarily been imposed for non-compliance with the orders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision can be reviewed once Wikipedia removes sacrilegious content that has been identified by the regulatory authority,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
In a statement earlier this week, the telecom regulator said it had approached Wikipedia to block or remove the content in question by issuing a notice under \u201capplicable law and court order(s)\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn opportunity of hearing was also provided, however, the platform neither complied by removing the blasphemous content nor appeared before the authority,\u201d the statement had said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the intentional failure on part of the platform to comply with the directions of PTA, the services of Wikipedia have been degraded for 48 hours with the direction to block\/remove the reported content,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n
The regulator warned that in case of non-compliance, Wikipedia would be blocked in the country and its restoration would be \u201creconsidered subjecting to blocking\/removal of the reported unlawful content\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has banned popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia in the country for not \u201cblocking\/removing sacrilegious content\u201d within the 48-hour deadline given to the website, a spokesperson confirmed on Saturday. Wikipedia is a free, crowdsourced, editable online encyclopedia often used as a starting point by millions across the world for basic information. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-311720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n