The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has banned popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia in the country for not “blocking/removing sacrilegious content” within the 48-hour deadline given to the website. On Wednesday, the services of the free, crowdsourced, editable online encyclopedia were degraded across Pakistan. PTA spokesperson Malahat Obaid told Dawn said the ban had primarily been imposed for non-compliance with the regulator’s orders. “The decision can be reviewed once Wikipedia removes sacrilegious content that has been identified by the regulatory authority.” Wikimedia Foundation, the charity that runs Wikipedia, has said it “does not make decisions around what content is included on Wikipedia or how that content is maintained”.
