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Pakistan unblocks Wikipedia after a three-day ban
Wikipedia is back online in Pakistan three days after regulators banned it in the country.
Pakistan blocks Wikipedia over 'sacrilegious' content
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked Wikipedia in the country after degrading the website for 48 hours over content it considers "sacrilegious."
Meta's 'free' internet is costing people money in developing countries
Some people using Meta's free internet service are being charged for it, and the company is still trying to fix the problem, according to documents shared with the Wall Street Journal.
Huawei accused of pressuring US firm into installing a data backdoor
Huawei has been accused of pushing a US company into installing a data backdoor for a Pakistani project, but the truth isn't clear.
Pakistan bans TikTok again for hosting 'obscene' content
Tiktok users in Pakistan won't be able to access the app yet again after the Peshawar High Court issued an order to ban the short-form video sharing platform in the country.
TikTok is back in Pakistan following ban due to 'unlawful content'
Pakistan has lifted its ban on TikTok, but only so long as the social video app moderates content in line with local norms.
Pakistan bans TikTok over 'immoral and indecent' content
Following a recent ban in India, TikTok has been blocked in Pakistan as well. In a press release issued today, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) cited “complaints from different segments of the society” and “the nature of the content being consistently posted on TIkTok.”
Strict visa rules are still keeping game devs out of the US
The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Foundation awards scholarships each year to up-and-coming artists, writers and programmers from around the world. The scholarships offer passes to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, plus a travel stipend, exclusive networking opportunities, tours of local studios, help with resumes and portfolios and one-on-one mentorships with industry veterans. For a developer trying to break into video games, it's a fantastic prize.
Pakistan's Prime Minister resigns following Fontgate scandal
Fontgate strikes again. Pakistan's prime minister Nawaz Sharif has stepped down following a Supreme Court order disqualifying him from holding office. The ruling also called for anti-corruption cases against Sharif and his family. After proving pivotal to the probe that led to today's decision, Microsoft's Calibri font could also make an appearance in the next stage of proceedings.
Facebook rebuffs Pakistan request to link accounts to phone numbers
Pakistan has gone to great lengths to track technology users in the name of censorship and security, but it's not going to get very far with Facebook. The social network has turned down a government request to link phone numbers to accounts in a bid to cut back on fake accounts posting illegal content, such as sacrilegious statements. Facebook will remove fake accounts, a spokesperson tells the Express Tribune, but it also has to protect the rights of its users.
Microsoft's Calibri font is at the center of a political scandal
Pakistan's government is in trouble. And its fate may hinge on a Microsoft font. Judicial investigators probing the financial assets of the country's Prime Minister and his family allege his daughter (and apparent successor) forged documents to hide her ownership of overseas properties. How did they reach that conclusion? The documents from 2006 submitted by Maryam Nawaz (daughter of PM Nawaz Sharif) were in the Calibri font. That font, according to the investigation team's leaked report, wasn't publicly available until 2007.
'Asteroid Day' is a good time to learn about the threat of space rocks
On June 30th, 1908, more than 770 square miles of remote Russian forest were obliterated from the face of the Earth when a relatively small meteor, estimated at only around 400 feet across, unleashed 15 megatons of energy above the Stony Tunguska River. One hundred and nine years later, humanity knows precious little more about the dangers that lurk within our solar system than we did in 1908. But a recently founded "global day of education" aims to bring the existential threat that space rocks pose to the forefront of our collective consciousness.
Pakistan investigates army critics on social media
Pakistani authorities are on a mission to squash all anti-military sentiments online. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan directed the country's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate 200 social media accounts with posts that criticize the country's powerful Armed Forces. FIA told Reuters that it has already identified the owners behind 18 of the accounts, all of whom are accused of spreading negative material against the army. "Unwarranted criticism of security forces and other institutions responsible for the defence of the realm is not allowed," Nisar said in a statement.
Arctic seed vault grows as defense against food crisis
In light of President Donald Trump's rise to power, some people are seriously worried about the planet's health. Count The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists among that group, since they recently pushed the Doomsday Clock to two and half minutes to midnight. Even if they think humanity is closer to extinction than it was just a couple months ago, we're now better prepared to respond to a food crisis.
Fake news starts an Israel-Pakistan Twitter dispute
There's no question that fake online news can have dire consequences, but it's now clear that this is true even on an international scale. After a false story claimed that Israel was threatening to nuke Pakistan if it sent troops into Syria, Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja M. Asif warned Israel that his country could retaliate with nuclear weapons if necessary. He later backtracked by saying that Pakistan was peaceful and had nukes solely as a "deterrence to protect our freedom," but only after Israel's Ministry of Defense noted that the offending statement (attributed to former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon) didn't exist.
Gene editing can end disease and fight global famine
We're looking at the single greatest advancement in genetics since Mendelev started growing peas. CRISPR-Cas9 gene-modification technology is powerful enough to cure humanity's worst diseases, yet simple enough to be used by amateur biologists. You thought 3-D printers and the maker movement were going to change the world? Get ready for a new kind of tinkerer -- one that wields gene-snipping scissors.
Pakistan ends YouTube ban after custom version launches
YouTube is now officially back in Pakistan, following the launch of a localized version of the site last week, Reuters reports. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority banned YouTube back in 2012 after an offensive anti-Islam film, Innocence of Muslims, was posted. Now with the localized version, the PTA has a more direct line of access to Google to deal with offensive content.
YouTube gives three Asian countries their own homepages
YouTube hasn't officially been a thing in Pakistan since 2012 when the country blocked the video sharing service over its refusal to remove Innocence of Muslims, a low-budget schlockfest that depicted the Prophet Mohammed. However, that could soon change as Google debuted a trio of new, localized homepages for Pakistan, as well as Sri Lanka and Nepal, on Tuesday.
BlackBerry is leaving Pakistan over demands for backdoor access
BlackBerry has announced it's formally shutting down shop in Pakistan over demands from the country's Telecommunications Authority that backdoor access be granted to the company's encrypted services. Back in July, local carriers were ordered to shut off BlackBerry Enterprise Service from the end of November, because "security reasons." While the order has been pushed back to the end of the year, Pakistan's government isn't budging, leaving BlackBerry no other option but to abandon the country. As the company explains, "remaining in Pakistan would have meant forfeiting our commitment to protect our users' privacy. That is a compromise we are not willing to make."
America's drone strike program needs a low-tech fix
Last week, The Intercept released a trove of classified documents (provided by an unnamed source) relating to America's use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as weapons of assassination. These activities took place between 2011 and 2013, throughout both active combat areas in Iraq and Afghanistan and nations like Yemen and Pakistan. And while plenty of people are discussing the shortcomings of human-controlled UAVs, nobody's talking about how to fix them. Could the answer be more technology like the fully autonomous weapon and surveillance platforms that the Department of Defense (DoD) is developing? Or, when it comes to aerial assassinations, is less more?
