Online reports going around claim that Pakistani authorities have now blocked Spotify, a well-known digital music and podcast service, in addition to barring access to X, formerly known as Twitter.
The assertion is untrue. Although X has been restricted in Pakistan for more than a month, Spotify has not yet been subject to any limitations.
Declare
On March 25, social media users in Pakistan started inquiring as to whether Spotify had been outlawed in the nation by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), which had shut down Twitter (X) a few days earlier.
Check your facts: Posts erroneously state that Spotify is banned in Pakistan
The same query was observed to be posed by other internet users here, here, and here.
Fact
According to independent internet monitoring organizations, Spotify access is now unrestricted in Pakistan.
On March 26, statements from Bytes for All (B4A), an information and communication technology research think organization with headquarters in Islamabad, were sent to Geo Fact Check stating that Spotify was “working fine” across all platforms.
Media Matters for Democracy (MMfD), an organization that promotes media literacy and digital development with its headquarters in Islamabad, affirmed the same and added that Spotify was operating without a VPN.
Huzaifa Baloch, a content analyst at MMfD, stated that although “users were probably facing some glitch” on March 25, “Spotify has not been blocked.”
