Aaj Logo

Updated 18 Feb, 2024 06:36pm

X, formerly Twitter, down in Pakistan for second time in less than 24 hours

Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, was reportedly down in Pakistan on Sunday after being restored briefly in the morning. The outage in the country started on Saturday night amid electoral fraud allegations.

Users faced slow or non-existent accessibility to the platform as Netblocks, an independent observer, confirmed that there was ‘national-scale’ disruption to X.

“Live metrics show a new national-scale disruption to X/Twitter in #Pakistan amid escalating unrest and protests over allegations of election fraud,” a post on X read.

On Saturday, Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatta surrendered to police after claiming that he made returning officers under him to change results for at least 13 MNA candidates.

But he did not substantiate his claims with any proof or information as to who was the beneficiary of such irregularities.

He also accused the Election Commission of Pakistan and Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa of involvement in the ‘rigging’ — a claim denied by the ECP and the CJP.

He made such claims at a press conference in Rawalpindi at a time when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was protesting against alleged election rigging.

Read: PTA confirms internet disrupted by upgradations to counter ‘illegal content’

On January 20, social media platforms were down in Pakistan as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was holding its second online power show.

Netblocks, an independent observer, confirmed that there was ‘national-scale’ disruption to platforms including YouTube, Instagram, X, and Facebook.

Later, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) claimed that the internet service was disrupted due to a technical fault.

Read Comments