The government has decided to install a firewall to control social media users as part of its steps to block “undesirable content” from reaching a wider audience.

The ruling coalition has so far not issued details about the plans, but sources told Aaj News that a firewall would be installed on the internet service providers (ISPs) and data on social media could be filtered through deep packet inspection (DPI) while the data could be blocked at the IP level instead of the application level.

Last week, local media reported that the firewall had already been purchased and was currently being installed and commissioned. While Pakistan has previously used such technology to block websites and social media apps, including the Canada-based Netsweeper, the new firewall would be used to inspect information originating from different internet protocol addresses.

It would serve two main purposes: to identify the sources of “propaganda material” and to subsequently block or limit the visibility of those sources.

The government has convinced the internet service providers and the firewall would have the capability of DPI—a method of examining the content of data packets as they pass by a checkpoint on the network.

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It would be able to see data up to layer seven and through this, social media data could be filtered. The firewall would be able to identify “propaganda points” on social media and it would have the ability to block propaganda points and IDs.

A firewall would be installed on the ISPs and the government would pay for some of the cost of the firewall installation while the remaining cost would be borne by the internet service providing companies.

According to the information technology ministry, the ISPs are bound to block illegal content and the companies are bound to take measures to prevent such content according to the licence clause. Moreover, the installation of the firewall falls under the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s jurisdiction.