Pakistan will ban Wikipedia if 'blasphemous content' is not removed

In recent years, the country has also blocked the wildly popular video-sharing app TikTok several times over "indecent" and "immoral" content.

Pakistan blocked YouTube from 2012 to 2016 after it carried a film about the Prophet Mohammed
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Pakistan blocked YouTube from 2012 to 2016 after it carried a film about the Prophet Mohammed

Pakistan has threatened to ban Wikipedia if it does not remove "blasphemous content" from its website, the latest censorship warning in the country.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Wednesday said the website had until late Friday to heed the warning, without elaborating on the content in question.

In the meantime, Wikipedia would be "degraded", disrupting and slowing access to the free online encyclopedia, which gets billions of views each month.

"Given the intentional failure on part of the platform to comply with the directions of PTA, the services of Wikipedia have been degraded for 48 hours with the direction to block/remove the reported contents," the notice said.

"In case of non-compliance by Wikipedia the platform will be blocked within Pakistan."

The website has previously faced restrictions on some of its pages.

Pakistan blocked YouTube from 2012 to 2016 after it carried a film about the Prophet Mohammed that led to violent protests across the Muslim world.

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