(Daily Point) — In recent months, the demand for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in Pakistan has seen a significant surge, driven by frequent disruptions to social media platforms, as reported by TechRadar.
The disruptions to internet services, particularly access to social media platforms, have occurred on multiple occasions in the country. The first instance was on January 7, when users faced slow or non-existent accessibility to platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. While the government remained silent on the issue, independent observer Netblocks noted that the disruption coincided with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) preparing to launch its election fundraising telethon.
A similar issue occurred on January 20, coinciding with PTI’s second online power show ahead of the 2024 elections. According to TechRadar, Proton VPN, a VPN provider, observed a steady increase in users in Pakistan during these disruptions. Samuele Kaplun, VPN Lead at Proton VPN, reported a 400% increase in sign-ups to Proton VPN in early January 2024, with daily users averaging 40% higher than two months prior.
On February 8, the day of voting, internet and mobile phone services were suspended again in Pakistan, causing communication problems for voters. NetBlocks reported real-time network data showing internet blackouts in multiple regions along with mobile network disruptions.
Top10VPN indicated a 110% increase in VPN demand from February 5 onwards amid multiple internet shutdowns. The demand had been consistently high since the beginning of 2024 due to social media shutdowns. Notably, VPN demand nearly doubled on February 5 (around 96%) and spiked to 110% higher on February 7.
The recent outage was specifically related to X, which experienced intermittent outages in Pakistan over the last two days. The disruption began on Saturday night amid allegations of electoral fraud, leading to escalating unrest and protests. Netblocks posted, “Live metrics show a new national-scale disruption to X/Twitter in #Pakistan amid escalating unrest and protests over allegations of election fraud.”
