Wikipedia Foundation Asks PTA to Unblock Wikipedia in Pakistan

The PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) blocked Wikipedia just around two days ago over having sacrilegious content

The Wikipedia foundation has just demanded PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) to unblock Wikipedia and its services in Pakistan. This demand came just 3 days after PTA blocked Wikipedia in Pakistan, stating that the website contains sacrilegious content that hurt muslim sentiments.

PTA first sent out a temporary 48 hours block to Wikipedia on 1st February and demanded the world’s biggest free encyclopedia to remove “unlawful” content as per government orders. Alongside the temporary block, PTA also mentioned that the block will become permanent once it fails to fulfill demands.

Wikipedia, however did not change the information and on 3rd February Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects got completely banned in Pakistan.

According to statistics, Wikipedia gets almost 50 Million page views from Pakistan each month. The platform is one of the world’s largest online encyclopedias and is an ever expanding archive of knowledge.

Users from all over the world can edit and add information on the platform thus making it a credible source of information. Pakistan has a long list of Wikipedia editors who constantly add new information onto the site, but will now be deprived of it.

The Wikipedia foundation in its statement for the PTA said that “We hope that the Pakistan government joins with the Wikimedia Foundation in a commitment to knowledge as a human right and restores access to Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects promptly, so that the people of Pakistan can continue to receive and share knowledge with the world.”

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