Many internet users said they had “restricted access” to virtual private networks (VPNs) and had trouble connecting to the internet on Sunday.
Several complaints of customers having trouble connecting to VPN services, namely VPN Unlimited and Tunnelbear, were sent to the outage tracking website Downdetector.
10 outage complaints from VPN Unlimited customers peaked at 6:15 p.m., according to Downdetector’s statistics, while Tunnelbear users continued to report problems until 7:29 p.m.
On the social media network X (previously Twitter), a number of users turned to posting listings of VPN providers that were still operational. Many users said that VPN services were completely unavailable, and others complained about restricted access and sluggish VPN connections.
In Pakistan, X and other blocked websites by PML-N and PPP government are frequently accessed with VPNs.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) stepped up its attempts to limit VPN use in August with the goal of limiting access to X, which is still prohibited in the nation.
The ban on X was imposed for national security concerns, according to Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, who cited the platform’s suspected usage by “separatists and terrorists” in his September explanation.
Tarar emphasized that the limitation was not meant to impair the right to free speech.
Reports of limited access continued even after the PTA refuted rumors in September that VPNs were being banned.
According to a technical examination conducted in September by the digital rights organization Bytes For All (B4A), Pakistani users who used VPNs to access the internet reported faster download speeds and fewer interruptions.
In a recent research, B4A emphasized “significant” performance discrepancies between VPN and non-VPN connections, based on a network health scan across many internet service providers (ISPs) in Pakistan.
