Imran Khan rules social media; Pemra ban will have zero effect
The Pemra ban on Imran Khan's live speeches will have zero effect on containing his voice in the presence of social media
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) ban on conventional media like television channels and live speeches will have zero effect on containing the voice of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan as he was currently ruling the social media.
The coalition government made a failed attempt to stop Imran Khan from spreading his message among nationals and his supporters across the globe by suspending the transmissions of ARY News and Bol News.
However, the move has completely failed due to the reach of social media more than the conventional mediums while PTI and Imran Khan have a full grip on them.
It apparently forced the coalition government to block the video streaming platform, YouTube, yesterday during Imran Khan’s speech at Rawalpindi’s public gathering.
The internet’s observatory, NetBlocks, confirmed in a tweet, “Confirmed: Metrics corroborate reports of a disruption to YouTube in Pakistan on multiple internet providers; the incident comes as former PM Imran Khan live streams on the platform despite a ban by media regulator PEMRA.”
⚠️ Confirmed: Metrics corroborate reports of a disruption to YouTube in Pakistan on multiple internet providers; the incident comes as former PM Imran Khan live streams on the platform despite a ban by media regulator PEMRA
📰 Report: https://t.co/mFBehYjlnY pic.twitter.com/CtD8vYX8f6
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) August 21, 2022
TeamYouTube on Twitter said, “We’ve seen similar reports about YouTube not working in Pakistan & passed yours along.”
we’ve seen similar reports about YouTube not working in Pakistan & passed yours along
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) August 21, 2022
The disruption of YouTube was witnessed after PTI conveniently moved to the video streaming platform after Pemra banned the live speeches of Imran Khan.
According to the statistics, Khan has 12 million on Facebook, 7.5 million followers on Instagram, 17.5 million on Twitter and 322k subscribers on YouTube excluding 7.4 million Twitter followers on PTI’s official account and 7.9 million followers on PTI’s official Facebook page.
Analysts said that Imran Khan and his political party have been successfully using social media platforms for public engagements for a long time rather than relying on conventional media platforms like newspapers and television channels like other political parties.
They said that Khan was no more dependent on conventional media in the presence of social media to spread his message to people across the globe. They were of the view that it would be very difficult or nearly impossible for the coalition government to shut social media platforms to end the public engagements of Imran Khan.
