Of VPNs and Policing the Internet

It is clear (once more) that folks running Pakistan are not serious people.

HBO’s Succession is arguably one of the best television series in recent memory, and it has given us a plethora of quotable quotes that can be used in real life. Logan Roy’s final season comment to his children particularly resonated with me given that the geniuses running Pakistan decided to leverage the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) to declare VPN use as “unIslamic.”

If you are confused about what I am referring to, see the excerpt below:

In a proclamation on Friday, the CII — which advises parliament on aligning legislation with Islamic teachings — said using VPNs for “immoral or illegal activities”, as well as to access “illegal content or blocked websites” was against Sharia.

In the statement, the CII chairman had contended that Islamic laws allowed the government to prevent actions that lead to the “spread of evil”.

Speaking to Geo News’ programme ‘Geo Pakistan’ today, Dr Naeemi said: “Whether it is a registered VPN or unregistered, if attempts are made to access indecent or immoral sites, character assassination is done, statements are being made against national security, or if various incidents of religious blasphemy are being spread through it, then [using] it would completely be un-Islamic.

At a personal level, I was surprised that things have come to this, even thought many friends rightfully told me that this was an obvious move.

After all, the most powerful man in the country often refers to social media as “Satanic media” and reportedly said the following in his remarks at the recently-held Margalla Dialogue:

Addressing the growing issue of fake news, he said, “While technology has played a pivotal role in the dissemination of information, the spread of misleading and incorrect information has become a significant challenge.”

“Without comprehensive laws and regulations, false and misleading information, along with hate speech, will continue to destabilise political and social structures,” Gen Munir stated, advocating for stricter regulation of social media and a reduction in online freedoms.

What is interesting of course is that the army chief’s former colleagues were first movers in this space a few years ago, when an entire ecosystem was birthed - using taxpayer resources - to wage fifth-generation warfare on Pakistani citizens.

Most of the architects of this strategy went native in the process, and the fallout from that experiment going sideways continues to reverberate across the country.

This VPN announcement also reminded me of the dating apps ban in September 2020:

Pakistan said on Tuesday it has blocked Tinder, Grindr and three other dating apps for not adhering to local laws, its latest move to curb online platforms deemed to be disseminating "immoral content".

Pakistan, the second largest Muslim-majority country in the world after Indonesia, is an Islamic nation where extra-marital relationships and homosexuality are illegal.

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority said it has sent notices to the management of the five apps, "keeping in view the negative effects of immoral/indecent content streaming."

Back then, Riasat-e-Medina was being built and the man chose as the Caliph of the state decided that the youth of Pakistan ought not to pursue his own past lifestyle. After all, he had found out decades later how terrible of a path he was on, and the best way to fix the sins of the past was to prevent a younger generation from accessing dating apps.

This is not about morality.

The open secret, however, is that these curbs on the internet - including the proposed VPN bans - have nothing to do with immorality. Those of us who have been following digital policy in Pakistan have known that the powers that be want to put the genie that they let loose and fed over the years back in the bottle.

There are three pillars of this strategy: technical interventions to block access to the internet via the proverbial firewall and the blocking of VPN access, legislative changes to expand the use of lawfare, including by criminalizing speech, and old-school repression to silence dissent on the internet.

This strategy is gaining momentum with every passing month, especially since as the establishment has captured parliament and made it into a pliant executor of its will.

The problem is that the genie, despite being imprisoned, is refusing to go back in the bottle. This coming weekend will be another test, and it is likely that more curbs on the internet will be placed in the run-up to the protests that have been announced.

Serious people would by now realize that the issue is not expression on the internet, but the fact that the people’s will has been trampled upon in the February 2024 elections.

But unfortunately for Pakistan, serious people have not been in charge of the country for years, if not decades.