Published On:Monday, 23 March 2015
Wordpress temporarily blocked in Pakistan citing security issues.
Wordpress.com, a popular open-source blogging tool, has been blocked in Pakistan. There is no confirmation regarding the duration of the ban. Pakistan has always maintained strict internet laws and sites like Facebook, Wikipedia, IMDb, and Twitter etc. have experienced temporary bans in Pakistan. The other on-going ban is on YouTube which is in practice since September 2012 for featuring a trailer of an anti-Islam movie.
According to a report from TechCrunch, the WordPress site has been blocked from within Pakistan but self-hosted WordPress blogs are still working. A few reports claim that the ban won't last for more than few days.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is responsible for the block. The PTA is authorized to block any content on the internet without any prior notice to the public. According to ProPakistani blog, who claims to have been confirmed by an anonymous source within PTA, WordPress.com has been blocked due to security reasons with reference to the Pakistan Day. The exact nature of the "threat" from WordPress.com that triggered the blocking is still unconfirmed. The PTA has asked the all the Internet Service Providers in the country to block the website
