Pakistan Telecommunication Authority blocked over 1.54 million online URLs across major digital platforms by July 2026, according to official data released by the regulator. The figures show a takedown rate of 89.4 percent, meaning the large majority of URLs flagged for review were ultimately blocked. In total, the authority processed 1,726,303 URLs, of which 1,542,800 were blocked, 76,874 remained under review, and 106,629 complaints were rejected outright.
The largest single category of blocks fell under what PTA classifies as Others and Miscellaneous, accounting for 891,772 URLs and carrying a 99.15 percent blocking rate, the highest across all categories tracked. This classification covers content outside major social media platforms, though the authority does not publicly break down what specifically falls under this broader label.
Among named social media platforms, Facebook recorded the highest number of blocks in absolute terms, with 230,270 URLs blocked out of 287,362 processed. TikTok followed with 170,231 blocked URLs, while X, formerly known as Twitter, recorded 74,236 blocks. YouTube posted the highest platform specific blocking rate among major platforms at 88.6 percent, with 66,290 of 74,823 processed URLs taken down. WhatsApp saw 50,165 URLs blocked at a 90.53 percent rate, while Instagram recorded 45,510 blocks at a rate of 83.76 percent. Smaller platforms were also affected, with SnackVideo seeing 7,225 URLs blocked, Bigo and Likee combined accounting for 6,539 blocks, and Dailymotion recording 562.
The data release comes as Pakistan’s approach to digital regulation continues to draw attention, following PTA’s recent Letter of Intent with Meta on digital safety, and as both the Islamabad High Court and Lahore High Court hear separate petitions related to social media regulation for minors. The authority has not disclosed the specific methodology it uses to process complaints at this volume, including how much of the review process relies on automated filtering versus manual assessment, or how false positives are identified and handled within the system.
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