Twitter X Down for Over 36 Hours Amidst Election Rigging Protests

• Internet access remains problematic in Pakistan, even a week after the general elections.
• X has been unavailable in Pakistan for over 36 hours due to admissions of election manipulation.
• NetBlocks reported a 24-hour restriction of X/Twitter in Pakistan, marking a prolonged disruption.

Internet access continues to be problematic in Pakistan, even a week after the general elections. X, previously referred to as Twitter, has been unavailable in the country for more than 36 hours following admissions from the Rawalpindi commissioner about election manipulation. It went offline on February 17th around 10 p.m. and briefly resumed normal operation for 30 minutes yesterday before going offline again, where it remains today.

On Saturday, Rawalpindi’s commissioner, Liaqat Ali Chattha, declared his decision to turn himself in to the police. He admitted to tampering with election outcomes, asserting that he personally oversaw the modification of 70,000 votes, reportedly saying, “We transformed the defeated candidates into victors.”

NetBlocks, a cyber security watchdog, reported that “metrics indicated X/Twitter has been limited in Pakistan for 24 hours.” This signifies the lengthiest period in a succession of nationwide disruptions, as stated by NetBlocks.

Downdetector, a website outage tracker, has been documenting numerous X outages across the nation, affecting both the X app and website. Users have reported difficulties loading posts on the social media platform, with some unable to access any web pages at all.

In recent times, the nation has experienced frequent disruptions to internet and social media sites, especially over the past couple of months amidst the ongoing situation following the 2024 general election.

On Saturday night, users voiced frustration due to their prolonged inability to access X.

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Moreover, last month, the country faced disruptions across multiple platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, the streaming service YouTube, Google Services, and the internet service provider PTCL.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has remained entirely silent on the issue and has not issued any official statements regarding it.