Pakistan’s Punjab seeks social media ban on security concerns

Pakistan’s largest province of Punjab is proposing a ban on all social media platforms for six days due to security concerns during thousands of religious processions which start next week, its information minister Uzma Bukhari said on Friday.
The proposal relates to Muharram’s Ashura processions, 10 days of mourning by minority Shi’ite Muslims. The event is the holiest in the Shi’ite calendar and commemorates the 7th century death of political and religious leader Hussain Ibn Ali.
Hussain was grandson of the Muslims’ last Prophet Muhammad.
Bukhari said, “It is a recommendation, and no decision has so far been taken,” adding that the government had received reports of some sectarian issues on social media which he said could “put the country on fire”.
The measure is aimed at protecting the minority from sectarian violence, the provincial government wrote in a letter to Pakistan’s interior ministry on Thursday.
The letter, which was seen by Reuters, said social media platforms such as “Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Tiktok be suspended across the province of Punjab … in order to control hate material/misinformation”.