In Pakistan, there are currently talks of controlling social media through a firewall on the style of China’s ‘Great Firewall of China’ and in this regard, about a tender of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). The debate continues on social media.
Users on social media have been complaining about slow internet speeds in Pakistan and speculations are rife that this may be due to firewall testing.
The PTA has issued a tender for equipment to install a firewall on July 11, 2024, at a time when micro-blogging website X is already blocked in the country and people are forced to use it through VPN. are
The Ministry of Home Affairs had taken a stand in the Sindh High Court on this issue that X has been shut down on the grounds of misuse and national security concerns.
Since the release of the tender for the firewall, statements have started coming out from various quarters about it, but politicians have not paid much attention.
However, Mayza Hameed, a leader of the ruling party Muslim League-N, confirmed it on X on July 22, 2024, writing that the process of installing a firewall on the top four mobile networks of Pakistan has been started, which will cover the next four. It will be completed by the day.’
This X account of the ruling party member of assembly was getting closed on July 25, 2024.
Independent Urdu contacted the Ministry of Information Technology about this, but despite waiting for several days, no response was received. There was no discussion on this subject by the government or the ministers either.
Attempts were also made to inquire with the Federal Minister of Information and Broadcasting, but he also did not respond.
In January this year, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar told a private TV The interview I had identified monitoring plans to prevent alleged misuse of social media. He also confirmed that in the future, a ‘National Firewall’ will be created through the use of technology to reduce the negative trends of social media.
On the other hand, PTA has clarified regarding the tender and said that the procurement of next generation and web application firewalls of the organization and the monitoring and control of the national internet and social media related to it were circulated in newspapers and social media. Recent rumors are not true.
PTA wrote in its press release on July 23 that ‘the purpose of the tender is procurement of firewalls which will only affect the internal infrastructure of PTA. The purpose of its purchase is to protect various internal systems of PTA, which will be used in particular at PTA’s core data center and its disaster recovery site.
The statement added that the tender has been issued by PTA for procurement of four Next Generation Firewalls and two Web Application Firewalls.
Ignorance of telecom and internet companies
Telecom and Internet companies operating in Pakistan have expressed ignorance regarding the installation of firewalls.
When Independent Urdu asked the telecom company Jazz whether they have been contacted by the government regarding the firewall? So Jazz spokeswoman Fatima Akhtar replied: ‘We don’t know anything about the firewall.’
When he was asked the question that the reason for the WhatsApp services being affected was not the experimental efforts of the firewall at the government level? In response to this, Jaz’s spokesperson stated that ‘We have received reports of interruptions in WhatsApp services from cellular users and we are looking into the matter.’
When contacted, Transworld, an internet provider in Pakistan, also took the stand that ‘we are not aware of this matter and the legal team has not received any message from the government.’
On the other hand, the spokesperson of the Foreign Office said on the news about the installation of the firewall and the global concern that we do not have such information. Contact Pakistan Telecommunication in this regard, they will have the details.’
How does a firewall work?
As the name implies, a firewall is a wall-style security technology, capable of monitoring and controlling any network. Through this system, authorities can block content that is considered illegal, misleading and obscene from reaching users on social media.
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Basically a firewall system works to filter internet traffic ie content. This system also has the ability to limit the reach of content shared on social media. This means that a post will show up on the timeline of the least number of people.
Fazlullah, who is associated with a digital news platform in Islamabad, told Independent Urdu that ‘firewall gateway is used to monitor the in and out of digital traffic.’
Regarding the process of blocking any website and content, he said that ‘Instructions are entered in the firewall, for example, if a request for content comes from Facebook, X or any other platform, block it. should be done That way she gets blocked.’
Rohan Zaki, head of ‘Rohan Zaki.com’, which has been providing IT services to public and private organizations for the past two decades, told Independent Urdu that ‘the role of firewall is like a guard in the Internet system, which Blocks any content it is instructed to block.’
Explaining the firewall system in simple words, Rohan Zaki said that ‘firewall is a watchman who can be compared to a guard in normal life who does not allow anyone to enter a building for violating the dress code. Let it happen. Such a firewall is instructed not to allow certain content to reach the user.’
Explaining this system further, Rohan Zaki said that a firewall system will be installed on the internet wires entering Pakistan which will monitor all the content on the internet.
According to Rohan Zaki: ‘Filters can be applied to any word on the firewall, like blocking the word ‘Adiala’, searching for it will not show any content related to it, and if for example But if someone wants to watch Pakistani content from Turkmenistan, they can be blocked by recognizing the IP (Internet Protocol) address of Turkmenistan.
What is an IP address?
Ruhan Zaki said that like an identity card, every internet-using device has a unique IP address. He said that the IP address provided by the Internet can be used to determine where the device is being used from which region.
Default IP address: 101.53.224.0
Rehan Zaki said that the first four digits of an IP address are the user’s country, the next two are the zone and the last is the Internet service provider.
How can the reach of a content be reduced?
This system can also be used to reduce the reach of any unwanted content, i.e. to minimize the promotion of that content.
If, for example, the word ‘suicide’ is entered into the system, such posts can be blocked or their reach reduced.
An example of this can be taken from Facebook’s artificial intelligence that if a post is related to illegal parties or suicide or violence against children, then Facebook blocks such content and also blocks the account. does
Can a content uploader be traced through a VPN?
Currently X is blocked in Pakistan but users are using it through VPN but will VPN blocked websites still work after installing firewall?
In this regard, internet expert Afzal said that ‘Firewall has also started monitoring VPNs running in the world and blocks it too.’
According to them, blocked websites can be viewed through VPN until the VPN itself is blocked.
“If someone uploads content through that VPN, the VPN that the firewall is monitoring, that person can be traced by IP address,” Afzal said.
Rohan Zaki opined that blocked websites can be accessed through VPN because VPN is a network tunnel, which hides from one country’s internet system and enters another country’s server. .
He added that the firewall can monitor and block VPNs whose names are known to the firewall.
Can it be challenged in court?
Ahmed Pinsota, a legal expert on firewall blocking of websites, opined that ‘if it is done on the basis of content against national security or against the military, it will get constitutional cover.’ However, he further said that if any such action is taken without any concrete evidence, then this matter will be challenged in the court.
Ahmed Pansuta said that if this is done otherwise, it is a violation of the constitution and on the other hand there is also Article 14, which guarantees the privacy and data protection of citizens, this system will also be violated. .’
How effective is the Great Firewall of China?
The introduction of a national firewall in Pakistan has drawn comparisons with similar systems in countries such as China, Iran, Turkey and Russia. China is using a massive firewall, known as the Great Firewall of China, which blocks hundreds of websites and mobile applications.
In 2014, China blocked Instagram through its firewall and has previously blocked several websites including Facebook, X, Google, Gmail, Wikipedia, Snapchat and YouTube.
Apart from this, many other websites like BBC, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wikipedia and chatgpt are also blocked in China.
Here is the answer to the question: Do people in China not use these applications?
Muhammad Jamal, who studied in China for two years, told Independent Urdu that ‘Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, X etc. are blocked in China, which we used to use through VPN until the time when VP was also blocked. Don’t get blocked.’
He added that not only foreigners but also Chinese citizens access blocked websites through VPN.
Jamal said that “Chinese students also access Google through VPN for research instead of the country’s search engine Baidu.”
At the same time, he said that there are two to three different types of VPNs on the mobile phones of Chinese citizens.
It is feared that these possible government measures will increase the use of VPNs in the country and allow people to access banned content through them. According to a report, the use of Proton VPN in Pakistan has increased by 400% this year.
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2024-07-28 07:30:53
