Pakistan cut off access to Wikipedia on Monday. This is reported by the AP news agency. The website would have exceeded a 48-hour deadline to remove “blasphemous” images and texts. This would “hurt the feelings of Muslims,” said a spokesman. Under Pakistani law, blasphemous content is strictly prohibited.
The country does not disclose which Wikipedia content violates the rules. According to Wikipedia itself, the website was also blocked in 2006 and 2010. Both cases involved showing or writing about offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, who is not allowed to be depicted according to most common interpretations of the Quran. On the Wikipedia page of the prophet several images of him are currently on display.
Pakistan applies strict censorship to online platforms at times. YouTube was banned in 2012 because of the controversial anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims could be seen on the website. In 2015, YouTube made it possible for governments to shut down certain content in their country, after which Pakistan allowed the website again. TikTok is also taken off the air every once in a while for the same reasons, according to The Hindustani Times this has happened four times already. Each time, Chinese social media app is said to have been brought back online after TikTok promised to better moderate its users’ content.
Large-scale protests are regularly organized in Pakistan against, among other things, Western displays of the prophet. In 2020, French teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded near Paris by a student after showing a cartoon of Mohammed during his lesson. The far-right and fundamentalist Tehreek-e-Labbaik party then rounded up thousands of demonstrators in Islamabad, who demanded that, among other things, the French diplomatic representation be expelled from the country. More than 27 people were killed.