Firewall Trial Completed By PTA to Control Social Media

The trial period for the Pakistani government’s installation of a national firewall to monitor and regulate social media has just been completed.

According to sources in the Ministry of Interior told TechMag Team, the government is acquiring the new firewall system after seeing positive outcomes.

The firewall successfully prevented the download of images, audio files, and videos from social media sites during the testing. It slowed down mobile internet service and looked for leaks in mobile data.

All mobile carriers have received notification from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to complete the installation process.

All internet service providers will have their firewalls installed by the government, enabling deep packet inspection to monitor social media content and block it at the IP level. The federal government wants to regulate the distribution of all content, with ISPs and the government splitting the costs.

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PTA will supervise the firewall’s implementation, according to sources.

In 2018, Pakistan purchased a web surveillance system from a Canadian company; it is still in operation and undergoing upgrades. It is anticipated that the new firewall system will operate in a manner akin to that of China, detecting and blocking sensitive content based on keywords utilizing Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).