Minister blames VPN for internet slowness in Pakistan

Students are protesting to demand the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in Pakistan. In this ongoing movement, the government has been accused of slowing down the internet speed. Students claim that such efforts are being made to obstruct their movement activities. BBC news.

However, the country's state minister for information technology, Fatima Khawaja, has claimed that the government has no role to play in the slowness of the internet.

He said that Internet speed has decreased due to excessive use of VPN. The state minister made this statement in a press conference on August 18.

Fatima said a 'huge population' is using VPNs, which puts pressure on the network and slows down the internet.

In response to the question whether the government is responsible for the slow internet, he said such a claim is 'absolutely false'.

But Fatima admitted that the government is upgrading the system to improve cyber security.

He added, the government has the right to take such initiative in the amount of attacks on cyber security in our country.

However, human rights activists rejected this claim of the state minister. They said he 'avoided criticism like a politician.'

Rights activists say the state is introducing China-style internet firewalls to better control and monitor users.

Shahzad Ahmad, director of Bytes for All, a local digital audit firm, told the BBC that his firm had sufficient evidence to prove the existence of the firewall.

The BBC reports that in Pakistan and other Asian countries, a popular government tool to suppress dissenting voices is to shut down or restrict the internet. Protests erupted across Pakistan last year following the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Since then, the government has shut down multiple social media platforms in a crackdown on street and digital protests and, in some cases, has allegedly slowed down internet speeds in some areas.