Fact-check: Did Pakistan experience an internet slowdown on December 17?

Conflicting accounts have emerged on Pakistan’s social media, with some users claiming difficulty in accessing X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube on December 17, during the hours the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) held an online political gathering.

Other users, however, have dismissed these claims as “lies”, insisting that no social media platform had gone offline on December 17.

The former claims are true. A temporary internet outage was reported between 9pm to 2am on December 17.

Claim

Over the weekend, a debate began raging on Pakistani social media about whether internet services in the country had slowed down to disrupt PTI’s first online political rally.

Some X and Facebook users reported experiencing an internet slowdown, adding that they were then forced to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on December 17.

“Earlier only half of Pakistan knew about PTI’s online jalsa,” one user wrote on X, “Then the government closed the internet and now the whole of Pakistan knows about the rally.”

Similar posts can be viewed here and here.

Other online users reported encountering no such trouble accessing social media platforms.

“The internet is working and X is working too,” an X user wrote, “These dishonest people need to find a better excuse.” The post has been viewed 16,000 times and liked over 500 times to date.

Another account on X, formerly known as Twitter, even accused people of “lying”.

“On one hand they [PTI] say the internet was shut down, and on the other they claim four million people attended their virtual rally,” the user wrote on December 18, with a screenshot of the PTI chairman talking about an internet blackout on December 17.

This post had been viewed over 57,000 times and reposted over 600 times, at the time of writing.

Fact

Independent internet monitoring organisations and a digital rights activist confirm that the internet services in Pakistan did experience a slowdown on the night of December 17.

The Rome-based Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), which has been monitoring internet censorship since 2012, told Geo Fact Check via email that “multiple social networks were inaccessible in Pakistan on [December] 17-18”.

Elizaveta Yachmeneva, the community coordinator at OONI, said her organisation “documented the disruption of access to Twitter [X], Facebook, Instagram and YouTube” from 8 p.m. on December 17 to 2 a.m. on December 18.

OONI found disruptions on the following networks: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, Mobilink GSM, KK Networks Private Limited, Instacom, Cyber Internet Services and CM Pak Limited.

Separately, NetBlocks, a global internet monitoring group, also reported on its X account sudden internet restrictions in Pakistan on Sunday (December 17).

“Confirmed: Live metrics show a nation-scale disruption to social media platforms across Pakistan, including X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube,” it wrote, adding that the incident comes just ahead of a major virtual gathering organized by Imran Khan’s party, the PTI.

NetBlocks documented online disruptions between 8:30 p.m. or 9 p.m. on Sunday, which then continued for seven hours.

The PTI held its first virtual political meet on December 17 from 9pm to 1:48am in the run up to the national election. While the timings, of the rally and the internet slowdown, may coincide, Geo Fact Check could not independently verify if the two events were related or if there was any deliberate attempt by the authorities to block PTI’s online gathering.

Geo Fact Check also reached out to Usama Khilji, a digital rights activist and the director of Bolo Bhi, a civil society organisation advocating for digital rights and civic responsibility in Pakistan.

Khilji told Geo Fact Check via messages: “Yes, the internet was disrupted with the blocking of X, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.”

Geo Fact Check then contacted Malahat Obaid, the spokesperson of the government-run Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), which regulates telecommunication services in the country.

Obaid said the government body was still investigating complaints about an internet shutdown or slowdown in some areas of the country, but claimed that “overall situation of internet accessibility across the country appears normal”.

With additional reporting by Muhammad Binyameen Iqbal.

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