Pakistan sees an increase in VPN usage despite ongoing internet outages.

According to Techradar, Pakistan has seen a sharp increase in the demand for and use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) as a result of the ongoing disruption of social media platforms in recent months.

There have been many instances of disruptions in internet services, particularly with regard to social media platforms, throughout the nation recently.

Internet users first noticed delayed or nonexistent accessibility to X, formerly known as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, on January 7.

Although the authorities remained mute, an independent observer named Netblocks said that the interruption occurred just before the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was about to begin its telethon to raise money for the upcoming election.

A few days later, on January 20, during PTI’s second online power display in advance of the Election 2024, internet users had a similar problem.

TechRadar quoted a representative of Proton VPN, a VPN operator, to say that the number of VPN users in the nation has been steadily rising in recent months.

Three VPN surges that coincided with internet disruptions that were obviously meant to interfere with online activities hosted by the Pakistani opposition party, PTI, have been seen. According to Samuele Kaplun, VPN Lead at Proton VPN, “this resulted in a 400% increase in sign-ups to Proton VPN in early January 2024.”

The average number of daily users increased by 40% during the previous two months, according to Kaplun.

On February 8, the day of voting, internet and mobile phone services were once again blocked in Pakistan after voters reported experiencing communication issues as a result of an outage.

In addition to mobile network interruptions, NetBlocks stated in a post on X that “Update: Real-time network data show that internet blackouts are now in effect in multiple regions of Pakistan.”

Top10VPN reports that during the continuous internet outages starting on February 5, demand for VPNs surged by 110%.

Due to several social media shutdowns, the demand for VPNs has been stronger since the beginning of 2024. On February 5, demand nearly doubled (to around 96%) and increased to 110% on February 7.

X was notably affected by the latest outage; for the past two days, it has been intermittently unavailable in Pakistan. On Saturday night, the nation experienced an outage due to accusations of electoral fraud.

A post on X by Netblocks stated, “Live metrics show a new national-scale disruption to X/Twitter in Pakistan amid escalating unrest and protests over allegations of election fraud.”