Pakistan Sends Call For Proposals To Filter Internet Access

Pakistani government has now stepped forward to take a greater control over Internet by imposing harsh censorship. In a tender published on the Website of Information and Communications Technology Ministry’s Research and Development Fund the local government has asked for proposal from interested national and international parties dealing with the “development, deployment and operation of a national-level URL filtering and blocking system.”

Pakistan has reserved $10 million to work with interested company(ies) on Internet filtering technology.

The online proposal reads “The system would have a central database of undesirable URL’s that would be loaded on the distributed hardware boxes at each POP and updated on daily basis.” 

Websense, which has what Pakistan wants at the moment is the company based in San Diego responded saying that it would not seek such contract. Websense has been involved in similar practice in Yemen to filter the Internet upon the request of local government before it withdrew after criticism certain groups backing freedom of speech dictum.

This is not the first time that Pakistan has censored the Internet access. Facebook, YouTube, and few other Websites faced a temporary ban by PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) in the past. Such moves emerge on and off to safeguard the national interests, to protect human rights, and to diminish the blasphemy related cases.

Source:etechmag.com