Bluesky was just added to the list of blocked social media platforms in Pakistan as people worldwide flock to the X alternative.
The internet watchdog NetBlocks reported the outage on Thursday, November 20, 2024 (see tweet below).
X has been restricted since February, while Meta's Facebook and Instagram were restricted in July 2024 and May 2023, respectively, according to Surfshark's Internet Tracker.
⚠️ Confirmed: Metrics show social media platform Bluesky, a popular X alternative, has been restricted in Pakistan, corroborating user reports of issues accessing the service; Pakistan has imposed a growing number of social media platform bans and is also targeting VPN services pic.twitter.com/Lt6vvyKnVINovember 20, 2024
The block comes at the same time that virtual private network (VPN) tools, the software you need to bypass this type of restriction, are also being targeted. Authorities set November 30 as the deadline for businesses and freelancers to register their VPNs and avoid further service disruptions.
It isn't clear yet if commercial VPNs will be blocked, too. Last week, however, Pakistan's religious chief said that using a VPN is against Islamic law and called for a ban. The Ministry of Interior also called to block all "illegal" VPNs, claiming that terrorists use these tools "to facilitate violent activities and financial transactions in Pakistan."
While it's still difficult to determine exactly how the new VPN rules will impact people in Pakistan, Gytis Malinauskas, Head of Legal at Surfshark, one of the best VPN providers on the market, told TechRadar: "This further contributes to a worrying trend of internet censorship and limitation of people’s digital rights in Pakistan."
How to unblock Bluesky
Whether you live in Pakistan or are heading to the country soon, you're probably looking for a way to bypass internet restrictions and access all your favorite social media apps as usual.
At the time of writing, a VPN – security software that both encrypts your internet connection and spoofs your real IP address location to grant access to blocked content – seems to still be a viable option to keep accessing Bluesky within the country.
At the beginning of the month, residents lamented issues accessing their VPN apps throughout the day in what looked like the beginning of the crackdown on "unregistered" VPNs. Authorities later confirmed this to be a "brief technical glitch" and normal service quickly resumed.
Malinauskas said that also Surfshark experienced service disruptions at that time. "Currently, our services are functioning without interruptions in the country but we are closely monitoring the situation," he added.
Yet, this may change in a week as the registration deadline expires. I suggest checking out our best free VPN page to get all the most secure freebies out there without paying for them all. This will allow you to hop from one service to another in case of throttling.
Tools like the Tor Browser are also handy. Completely free to use and open-source, Tor is generally considered even safer than VPNs as it encrypts your data into at least three levels of encryption while spoofing your IP.
