Businesses bear the brunt of ‘ban’ on X in Pakistan

KARACHI: From business owners freting over lost clients to journalists seeking new sources, Pakistanis want the government to restore regular access to the social media plaform X, formerly Twiter, which has been blocked for nearly three weeks.

Authorities have blocked X — either partially or fully — since Feb.17 ater protests swept the country over allegations of vote rigging in a general election, according to the Netblocks global internet monitor.

When users try to access X, they oten see this message: “Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot.”

But Shaista Ayesha, who runs Karachi-based social enterprise SEED Ventures, is freting.

“We do our social media postings through X, and connect with other organisations and funders so there is definitely social media outreach loss and one avenue of strategic visibility gone,” Ayesha told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

She said she had not yet calculated the financial cost of the X ban, which is just the latest in a series of internet restrictions linked to the Feb.8 election. The vote was marred by a mobile internet shutdown on polling day and unusually delayed results, leading to accusations of vote tampering.

The United States, Britain and the European Union have separately expressed concerns about the electoral process and said reported irregularities should be investigated.

On Tuesday, the Islamabad High Court summoned the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the federal information ministry to answer a case filed by a resident of the capital challenging the disrupted access to X.

The case is scheduled to be heard next week. Initially, the PTA denied any knowledge of internet restrictions but in a similar case in the high court of Sindh province on Monday it said that the interior ministry had issued instructions to suspend mobile phone services on polling day.

X had 4.5 million users in Pakistan in early 2024, meaning that the social media plaform’s advertising reach in the country was equivalent to 1.9% of the population.

Hisham Sarwar, a popular tech guru who runs several digital marketing companies in Pakistan, said small businesses were making losses because the shutdown had hit social media marketing.

“The absence of (X) has resulted in panic as it takes time to create content on Meta plaforms,” he said, referring to Facebook and Instagram.

Nor is Tiktok a viable alternative, Sarwar said, as the plaform has not rolled out a service for businesses in Pakistan. X offers a beter return on marketing investment for companies like his, he said.