X, formerly Twitter, Down In Pakistan After Official Admits Election Rigging

For 24 hours on Sunday morning, users in Pakistan were unable to access X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. This outage occurred amidst frequent internet disruptions in the weeks leading up to, during, and after the contentious February 8th national election.

A Month of Social Media Issues

Social media platforms in Pakistan have faced problems for the past month. On Sunday, February 11th, internet monitoring service Netblocks reported that X had been restricted in the country for 24 hours, marking “the latest and longest in a series of nation-scale internet censorship measures imposed by authorities.”

Election Day Blackouts and Mobile Service Suspension

On election day, internet blackouts and a suspension of mobile phone service were reported across Pakistan. The Ministry of Interior said these measures were implemented in response to “recent incidents of terrorism” and aimed to “maintain law and order.”
More Outages and Election Rigging Claims
Two days after the election, another major X outage occurred as evidence of possible election rigging surfaced online, with critics speaking out against the country’s electoral process.

Commissioner Admits to Manipulating Results

On Saturday, the commissioner of Rawalpindi, Liaqat Ali Chattha, admitted to helping manipulate election results and “personally supervising” the switching of votes. He claimed to have “converted losers into winners.” It is unclear who is responsible for the recent X outages, and the company has not commented.

Pakistan’s election has been fraught with problems since its inception. Popular leader Imran Khan was jailed nine days before the election, and his party’s symbol was banned from ballots, making it difficult for voters to identify his candidates. Despite these challenges, PTI-backed candidates won the most votes, but due to the individual candidate format, the PML-N party emerged as the largest single party in parliament. Both parties claim victory, and the PML-N plans to form a coalition government.

What’s Next?

It remains to be seen if Chatta’s confession will lead to a reevaluation of the election results. PTI has called for the chief commissioner’s resignation, and other parties are also demanding an investigation into the rigging claims.