Al Jazeera reported on Pakistan’s development and planned implementation of its internet “firewall”, in an attempt to regulate and monitor the internet activities of users across Pakistan. Internet slowdowns and disruptions across Pakistan since July of this year have been attributed to trial runs of the firewall, though the Pakistani government has officially denied this being the case, instead blaming a number of factors, including underwater internet cables and “too many” people using VPNs within Pakistan.

Pakistan’s current attempt at a firewall incorporates Chinese technology (at a cost of 20-30 billion Pakistani rupees – or between US$ 72 to US$ 107 million) owing to that nation’s successful crackdown on freedom of expression online. According a source interviewed by Al Jazeera article, the new Pakistani firewall – once fully implemented – differs from previous attempts as the Chinese technology can allow the government to regulate and tackle websites and apps at a “granular level”. What the latter entails, as an ISP official told Dawn, is that the government can now block or restrict “access to single video or article”. Testing this new system usually takes place in a “sandboxed environment”, but the manner in which Pakistan’s internet system has been put together from tech sourced from numerous countries has meant that a large scale “live” test was needed, which the ISP official said explains the detrimental impact on internet speeds and access.