Our September report “Shadows of Control” revealed that Pakistan is running a huge unlawful surveillance and censorship system. Built with foreign tech and carried out without warrants and safeguards, this is enabling human rights abuses on a massive scale. The report underscores the urgent need for stronger safeguards, greater transparency, and robust accountability mechanisms, all grounded in a human-rights based approach, to prevent the further erosion of digital and human rights in Pakistan and beyond.

On 6 August, the Pakistani authorities announced they were shutting down mobile internet services in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province.  

Journalists in Pakistan are routinely subject to harassment, arrests and even enforced disappearances. In this backdrop, journalists are also reporting experiencing a high level of surveillance, both online and offline.

Pakistan’s unlawful mass surveillance and censorship expansion is powered by a nexus of companies based in Germany, France, United Arab Emirates (UAE), China, Canada, and the United States, Amnesty International said today in a new report “Shadows of Control”. The year-long investigation was carried out in collaboration with Paper Trail Media, DER STANDARD, Follow the Money, The Globe and Mail, Justice For Myanmar, InterSecLab and the Tor Project.