Internet Slows to a Crawl in Pakistan, Stoking Fear of a Firewall

When Shafi Naeem noticed internet speeds slowing in Pakistan in recent days, he grew nervous. Then he panicked. The websites that the Karachi-based freelance software designer used to find work would not load. Those that he had built for clients were taking hours longer than usual to upload onto servers — if they uploaded at all.

Clients sent him WhatsApp voice notes and photos that would not download. An outline of a clock at the bottom right of every image — the symbol that it had not yet been sent — seemed to taunt him.

“It’s not just bad for business; it’s devastating,” said Mr. Naeem, 39. He estimates he has already lost more than half of his roughly $4,000 monthly income. “Our work depends on fast, reliable internet.”

Across Pakistan, internet speeds have ground to a crawl in recent days, stoking uproar and fueling claims that the government is secretly testing a new firewall-like system to better surveil and control the country’s internet. The government denies responsibility for the slowdown, which has affected millions of users and disrupted businesses across the country.

Internet speeds have slowed to half their usual rates, according to trade groups and business owners. Files that once were uploaded in minutes take hours. Online calls and video conferencing are plagued by frozen screens and delayed voices.

The Pakistan Software Houses Association, which represents software companies nationwide, said in a statement that it “unequivocally condemns the grave consequences of the hastily implemented national firewall,” warning that Pakistan’s economy could lose up to $300 million because of the disruptions.

The Pakistan Freelancers Association warned that continued issues could lead to Pakistan’s being downgraded on online freelancing platforms, damaging the nascent industry.

The Pakistani authorities said that they were upgrading their systems to improve cybersecurity but denied that government surveillance technology was behind the disruption. Instead, they blamed people’s use of virtual private networks, or VPNs, for straining the networks.

“The internet has neither been shut down nor slowed by the state,” said Shaza Fatima Khawaja, the state minister for information technology and telecommunication, at a news conference on Sunday. Ms. Khawaja said the government was consulting with technical experts and service providers to address the problem.

But digital researchers and analysts attributed the slow speeds to the authorities’ efforts to control the country’s digital space, which, they warn, will curtail free speech and civil liberties in the country’s already fragile democracy.

They accuse the Pakistani authorities of deploying a new firewall-like system that is significantly more sophisticated than the web-monitoring system the government previously used to block certain websites.

The new technology, analysts say, allows the government to continue to block access to parts of the internet — like social media, websites and messenger platforms — as well as to better surveil, control and censor the digital space.

Usama Khilji, director of the Islamabad-based digital rights watchdog Bolo Bhi, said the new system appeared to allow the authorities to target and block specific components of mobile apps, such as voice notes, photos and videos on WhatsApp, while allowing text messages and voice calls.

Digital rights groups have warned that the system could eventually enable the authorities to trace messages posted online to the phone or computer where they originated, as well as to block specific content. Some rights groups suspect that the new technology is not configured correctly for Pakistan’s internet infrastructure, prompting the recent slowdown.

The allegations of new internet restrictions come amid a broader government-led crackdown on supporters of the jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or P.T.I.

Mr. Khan, the famous cricketer turned populist politician, was ousted in 2022, after falling out with the generals, and then made a stunning political comeback. His triumphant return was fueled in large part by his party’s use of social media, which existed mostly outside the reach of the state’s age-old censorship machine.

With 20.8 million followers, he is among the most popular Pakistani figures on X, formerly known as Twitter. His party has produced campaign videos on social media slamming the military for playing a role in Mr. Khan’s ouster — an accusation the generals deny.

But the spread of that idea — shared in viral videos on TikTok and distributed via WhatsApp groups — stirred a political awakening for many young people who had never heard a politician so directly challenge the military and ignited his base of support. Mr. Khan remains in prison on what he calls politically motivated charges.

The authorities stormed the P.T.I.’s central office in Islamabad on July 22, arresting its main spokesman, Raoof Hasan, and other members of the party’s social media team. The Interior Ministry justified the raid in a statement by accusing P.T.I. of engaging in “anti-state propaganda” but provided no further details.

A 26-year-old P.T.I. social media volunteer named Muhammad was detained during the raid and released on the condition that he refrain from P.T.I. activities, he said.

“The government is frustrated by its inability to counter Mr. Khan’s popularity,’” said Muhammad, who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of retribution from the government. “Now, they’re also stifling the growing I.T. industry with internet shutdowns and firewalls.”

Military leaders have for decades arrested opposition leaders, thrown journalists in jail and, at times, temporarily shut down the country’s internet to stifle dissent, rights groups say.

Since general elections took place in February, Pakistanis have had only intermittent access to social media sites like X. The media and public relations wing of the military, Inter-Services Public Relations, added senior officers to its ranks in recent years to counter the flood of anti-military messages on social media.

Military officials have introduced the term “digital terrorism” in speeches and news releases since May, vowing to defeat so-called operatives who they say aim to sow discord in the country.

That rhetoric has raised concerns among human rights and other activists that the military plans to treat Pakistanis who post social media messages critical of the government as it does militant groups carrying out terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil.

This month, the army’s chief, Gen. Asim Munir, ramped up that rhetoric, suggesting in a speech that there were limits to free speech in Pakistan and accusing foreign powers of inciting “digital terrorism.”

“Those who seek to create a rift between state institutions and the people of Pakistan will not succeed,” General Munir warned on Aug. 14 at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul.

Human rights groups and security analysts have warned against equating young political supporters of Mr. Khan with armed insurgent groups like the Islamic State affiliate in the region and the Pakistani Taliban, known as T.T.P.

“It is typical of security states to exploit terrorism labels to target political opponents and weaponize counterterrorism laws against them,” said Abdul Basit, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. That erodes civil liberties and gives militant groups “propaganda material, portraying the state as misusing terrorism for political gain,” he added.

Salman Masood contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.