IF THE government`s claims are to be believed, the year 2025 will probably be a watershed for the country in terms of internet connectivity.

After all, infrastructure is being put into place to end Pakistan`s dependency on one of the world`s oldest submarine cables and connect it to the new AAE-2 (Africa, Asia and Europe) pipeline.

New legislation is also being rolled out: initiatives like the Digital Nation Pakistan Bill and `Uraan Pakistan` project, as well asthe federal government`s push for e-governance methodologies and the digitalisation of government departments bode well for those working in the online economy.Ministers have also been quick to point out in the face of criticism that not only is the internet in Pakistan `faster and cheaper` than most other countries, the number of its users has also grown exponentially, 25 per centin the previousyear alone.

But the problem is, no one isbuying the official narrative anymore.

Like all other promises of yesteryear, the government`s actions belie its words and, so far, appear to be nothing more than positive spin.

In the context of internet governance, the year 2025 and beyond may see Pakistani cyberspace become more restricted than ever before, with both dissent and development being sacrificed at the altar of national security.

For those looking for a silver lining, though, there were some up-sides. For example, Pakistan`s median speed for both fixed-line connections and mobile data increased in 2024.

According to Ookla, which tracks the performance and quality of internet connections, the median mobile data speed was 16.67 megabits per second and 13.06mbps for fixed line connections in November 2023. A year later, they increased to 20.89mbps and 15.53mbps, respectively.

This improvement was not a result of the government`s actions. It was in spite of them. Telecom companies and ISPs are investing in improving their infrastructure andincreasingcoverage areas, and this trend is expected to continue this year, especially if the underlying e conomic stability persists.

Another hope for things to improve is the government`s ambition for a `digital revolution`, which, unsurprisingly, would at the very least need a reliable internet connection to access.

ICT expert Tariq Mustafa told Dawn the only way things could improve is if the government realises that internet censorship and its plans like the `Udaan Pakistan` and `Digital Nation Pakistan Bill` are not mutually exclusive. `The only hope is that their compulsion to improve the economy and bring in investment would force them to change course.

Technical tampering Attempts to throttle the internet aren`t a new phenomenon for Pakistanis, so why was their impact felt so profoundly this time around? According to journalist Sindhu Abbasi, there are two reasons for this. The first is that internet penetration in Pakistan is now far greater than it was a decade ago.

`Even when YouTube was banned ...

there weren`t [that many] people monetising their content on the platform,` she said, while referring to the restriction on the video-streaming platform from 2013 to 2016. Today, Pakistan is one of the fastest-growing markets for YouTube.

The throttling of the past also didn`t impact users as they weren`t heavily involved in freelancing and content creation on YouTube and other social media platforms, said Ms Abbasi, who has worked extensively on censorship, disinformation and cybercrime.

The second reason, she pointed out, was that this time, the government notonly blocked internet services, but also the alternative means to access them.

`Previously, URLs were being blocked and apps being banned, [but] it wasn`t all out. ... In the past, there was a certainty we knew YouTube was banned, but there were alternatives. Now, even alternatives have been blocked.

Noose around social media Like other euphemisms that permeate the local vernacular such as `loadshedding` the year 2024 gave us `firewall`, and in the process, forced nearly every netizen to become in expert in the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and anonymous browsing to get around restrictions on a number of websites.

The worst-hit were social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter)which was blocked ahead of the Feb 8 elections, but the restrictions were only formally acknowledged months later and messaging apps such as the widely-used WhatsApp.

Past censorship had been like an imaginary red line: people knew what sites or services were blocked. They also knew that all else was working fine. This time, that distinction was erased, and internet experiences varied, depending on where the user was based and how they chose to access theinternet.

For example, while mobile data suffered greatly, broadband users had a comparatively easier time browsing the internet.

In 2024, Mr Mustafa, who vividly remembers the internet throttling of the past, says back then, it was all or nothing the internet would either be fully accessible or not. There were no in-betweens.

During the past year, the government tinkered with the nature of the internet, which is considered `holy` around the world, he added `Whatever happened with the internet wasn`t [a total shutdown] ... what was happening was that some services were accessible, some weren`t; some were loading fast, some slow. This is extremely troubling because you`re fundamentally taking away the internet`s reliability.

This delicate balancing act did two things: it kept people guessing what the issue was, and gave officials plausible deniability.

For example, whenever the ban on X was brought up, the minister of state for IT`s rejoinder would be that only 2per cent of Pakistanis use the platform, andif the government actually wanted to curb free speech, they would have blocked TikTok, which had far more users than X.

The great `firewall` The nation`s awakening to the internet firewall a content filtration and monitoringtool-brought to the fore discourse about internet outages.

This was a silver lining, Ms Abbasi believes, as such outages were a norm in areas considered `strategic` by the state. It was only when these restrictions were extended to settled, urban areas, that people started questioning them.

We still have no credible information from officials about what this filtration mechanism is and where it has been installed. We were only told that a `web management system`, which was already in place, was upgraded due to enhanced cybersecurity risks.

It was only through sources we learnt the socalled firewall has been deployed at gateways from where the internet enters Pakistan and that it was anadvanced system capable of throttling and limiting content on an application basis.

The government did keep the workings of its filtration system a secret, but there was nothing secretive about how to bypass it VPNs.

Research shows that on some days last year, VPN use in Pakistan surged by 102pc,235pc,253pc,301pe and342pc.

`Our people have faced so many challenges in the past that they have adapted to using alternates. When the internet got shut down, almost everybody started using VPNs,` said Mr Mustafa, the ICT expert.

The widespread adoption of VPNs neutralised the very purpose of the firewall.

Hence, the purge against them became inevitable. The textbook of censorship was reopened with all the tricks from total shutdown of proxies to forced registration to national security concerns to licensing and even the `religious card`being used to lay the groundwork to stop VPNs.

Legal hoops The fact that 2024 ended with VPNs still working is no mean feat; it was simply becasue the government wants to be on a firm footing when it finally pulls the plug on these proxies.

For now, the state seems to have shelved the plan to block VPNs due to legal hitches. The present law allows authorities to block content on social media, but VPNs are not content; they are tools to access content.

Now, there are plans to stretch the definition of content in a way that also includes tools used to access the content, hence giving a legal footing to any future ban on VPNs.

The year also started with the forma-tion of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency to `safeguard the digital rights ofpeople and counter propaganda on social media`. The move threw up so many legal lacunae that the agency was effectively disbanded within seven months.

Only days later, officials floated the proposal for a new body, the National Forensics and Cybercrime Agency (NFCA), to tackle cyber and digital crimes and investigations. The body is planned to be set up under the NFCA Act, 2024, to investigate crimes like `cyber fraud, hacking, cyber espionage, terrorism, online harassment and cyberbullying, cyber extortion and cyber warfare` and audio and video `deepfakes`.

Just before the year ended, another addition was made to this stack of authorities. The Digital Rights Protection Authority (DRPA) would deal with issues such as the removal of online content, prosecuting peoplefor sharing or accessing prohibited content and action against social media platforms where such content is hosted.

`It`s like a headless chicken. They don`t know what they want to do,` said Farieha Aziz, the co-founder and director at Bolo Bhi, a digital rights advocacy group.

`None of these legislative measures is actually for the benefit of citizens,` she pointed out, adding the government is trying to do different things under the pretence of drafting laws and `putting everything in writing` when actually they are `going more towards an authoritarian` rule by keeping the language of these regulations opaque and adding more red tape.

A detailed version of this article can be accessed on Dawn.com