Access to social media sites have been restored in Pakistan, the country’s telecommunication authority spokesperson said on Monday. Facebook and YouTube were being restored in stages while Twitter service was up in some places.

“Social media services have been restored across the country,” the PTA spokesperson said. “The services have been restored on the instructions of the government.”

The internet service was already restored, it claimed and urged the peoplr to inform in case of problems in any area.

The services had been suspended on the orders of the interior ministry when protests broke out across Pakistan after Imran Khan’s arrest in Islamabad.

Amnesty International termed the suspension as an act against “freedom of expression”.

While the internet was disrupted, consumers still had access to voice calls and SMS messages.

The shutdown resulted in a loss of economic productivity and digital services, including digital payments.

“The IT industry has suffered a loss of Rs10 billion,” according to the All Pakistan Software Export Association. Internet services started resuming across Pakistan on May 12, however, it was again down on the next day.

With the restoration of mobile broadband internet, services like Uber, Bykea, and Foodpanda have started working again.

However, users are worried due to a lack of access to social media platforms. They have solved this problem through VPN. Usually, these Virtual Private Network services are provided by companies in Western countries that allow them in creating a secure connection between a computing device and a computer network.

Due to the use of VPN, a large number of Pakistani users are able to see different hashtags appearing from Western countries on their walls.