Internet Restrictions Are On The Rise And Here Are The Places That Have Been Affected The Most in 2023

Internet blackouts are never appreciated, especially in a world like today where everything seems to be online.

The fast-paced IT industry is known to suffer the most and that’s why it’s always recommended to be aware of the places where the web has been restricted and what led to such drastic decisions in the first place.

Well, if you happen to be as curious as us, we’re shedding light on the latest data by Surfshark that discusses just that.

The political crisis in Pakistan saw one of the country’s most popular former Prime Ministers get arrested by paramilitary troops outside the courtroom. And this further aggravated tensions as people took to the streets to protest against this behavior that they deemed beyond unfair.

Many cities were affected including Peshawar where one local medical center spoke of at least three people dying after being shot. Meanwhile, at least 27 people were left injured. But that was just the start of the tragedy.

The province of Punjab saw an emergency situation being declared and the country’s army was forced to step in and take the law and order situation into its own hands. A total of 945 arrests were made and nearly 130 officers belonging to the state police were injured in the protests.

It’s a tense situation and the government is not only making a very strong call for ground troops but it’s also taking tech matters into its hand by enforcing a total disruption of mobile and internet services until further notice. This means limited access to social media websites.

The latest infographics by Surfshark prove how Pakistan is one of the world’s many countries whose government and telecom authorities step in and ban internet services due to a political crisis or some sort of civil unrest situation.

Before this, the data proved that this may not be the first time that we saw such a situation unfold. There have been 12 cases across the nation that have taken place in the recent past. Around 5 of those were linked to protests while one had to do with the current elections and six were linked to turmoil taking place around the entire country.

But it’s the neighboring country of India that has seen the greatest figure in terms of restrictions on the internet which stands today at 108. And a whopping 83 majority were linked to protests galore.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World