People in Pakistan may now browse Wikipedia again, three days after the nation stopped the website due to information considered “sacrilegious” by officials.
After concluding that the ban was “not an acceptable approach to prevent access to some offensive contents/sacrilegious items on it,” Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Shehbaz Sharif directed officials to reopen Wikipedia.
According to Sharif’s office, the “unintended consequences of this blanket prohibition” outweighed the “benefits.”
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) “degraded” Wikipedia access, informing site owners that they had “48 hours” to delete particular content or face repercussions. Wikipedia appears to have declined, and the PTA in Pakistan shut the site.
In the meantime, Sharif has formed a cabinet committee to “explore and recommend alternative technical measures for removing or blocking access to objectionable content posted on Wikipedia and other online information sites, in light of our social, cultural, and religious sensitivities, and on the basis of proportionality.” The group is also entrusted with making additional recommendations for “balanced regulation of illicit content.”
Sharif directed the committee to provide recommendations to the cabinet within one week. That leaves little time for committee members to adequately review and analyze the numerous factors that go into content moderation.
