Twitter ban hits businesses, news in Pakistan

From business owners fretting over lost clients to journalists seeking new sources, Pakistanis want the government to restore regular access to the social media platform X which has been blocked for nearly three weeks.
Authorities have blocked X – either partially or fully – since Feb. 17 after protests swept the country over allegations of vote rigging in a general election, according to the Netblocks global internet monitor.
But Shaista Ayesha, who runs Karachi-based social enterprise SEED Ventures, is fretting.
Ayesha said “We do our social media postings through X, and connect with other organisations and funders so there is definitely social media outreach loss and one avenue of strategic visibility gone,”.
She said she had not yet calculated the financial cost of the X ban, which is just the latest in a series of internet restrictions linked to the Feb. 8 election. The vote was marred by a mobile internet shutdown on polling day and unusually delayed results, leading to accusations of vote tampering.