Is Internet Down in Pakistan? Users Face Problems Accessing Social

Pakistan is facing massive internet cuts and complaints of citizens being unable to access social media and messengers like WhatsApp have become a common concern in the country. While the government has denied the claims, at least two online tools have refuted the Pakistan government's claims about uninterrupted internet support. There are widespread issues faced by internet users while trying to access and use social media websites.

Pakistan Internet Outage: What Do Online Tools Say?

According to Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA), a tool developed by Internet Intelligence Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology, the internet disruptions lasted for many hours. The tool found internet connectivity was stable at the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

A network expert said that the stability of BGP routes — which are unique identifiers assigned to major internet providers — means no widespread outage has been reported. “Any disruption in BGP stability indicates a network-wide issue which usually occurs as a result of a submarine cable fault or fire at a data centre, etc,” the expert said, as reported by ANI.

“Downdetector, a software that bases its assessment on complaints of Internet users reported WhatsApp disruptions throughout the day. Around 52 per cent of users complained about issues pertaining to sending messages, while 27 per cent complained about voice notes, and 21 per cent about an overall application,” news agency ANI reported.

IODA tracks traffic headed to Google services like YouTube, Gmail, etc from a geographic location. The software reported disruption in Pakistan's Google services from 10 pm on Saturday to 8:20 am on Sunday, and then from 1:30 to 6 pm.

“For example, if daily, an x amount of traffic comes to Google addresses from Pakistan and today it is not coming, this is indicative of a restriction [of the internet],” an expert said ANI reported.
According to the expert, the IODA data shows there has been "abnormally restricted" internet access between two time slots.