The Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) on Tuesday dispelled rumours and clarified that virtual private networks (VPNs) in the country were not being blocked.

VPNs are widely used around the world to access content that may be inaccessible or blocked for internet users in their home country. They are also used by users to maintain privacy.

The use of VPNs by local internet users witnessed a significant increase in 2024. Most people have been using them to access X, formerly Twitter, which has been blocked in the country since February 19.

A report by Top10VPN, an independent VPN review website, stated that the demand for proxy networks increased by 131 per cent on Feb 19, two days after X was blocked.

Quashing media reports about PTA planning to block VPNs in the country, the authority issued a statement clarifying there was no truth to such rumours. However, it encourages users to register their internet protocol (IP) addresses for using VPNs.

“Recent news circulating in media about PTA to block VPNs, it is clarified that VPNs are not being blocked in Pakistan,” the telecommunications regulator said in a statement.

“However, PTA is encouraging all IT companies, software houses, freelancers and banks, etc, to register their IPs for using VPNs so that in case of any disruption, the internet services to these entities are not affected.”

It further said that VPN registration was a “one window operation” available at the PTA and PSEB websites, adding that the process would take two to three days, and was free of charge.

In August, the authority’s head had told a parliamentary committee that the authority was working on a plan to regulate the use of VPNs in Pakistan by whitelisting some proxy networks and blocking others.

The country’s information techno­logy minister, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, said during a press conference last month that the use of VPNs was the reason for the slowdown of internet services across the country.

“I want to reassure the public that the internet has neither been shut down nor slowed down by the state,” she had said.

Denying the government’s involvement, she claimed internet speeds were reduced because a large number of people had switched to VPNs to access certain apps.

“The issue was limited to a few services on certain apps not downloading, which led a large segment of the population to start using VPNs,” the minister had said without either naming the apps or the services that were disrupted.

Meanwhile, a technical analysis conducted by the digital rights group, Bytes For All (B4A), found that Pakistani users accessing the internet via VPNs last month got better download speeds and faced almost no disruptions.

“This improvement is evident in higher download speeds and lower retransmission rates, indicating that VPNs may bypass ISP-imposed throttling or DPI measures,” the report said, while referring to Deep Packet Inspection, said to be one of the reasons for internet slowdown.