• Move raises fears about internet-based businesses' future.
• More than Rs30 billion for acquisition, installation of firewall.
• Work on firewall has been in progress since January: official.

ISLAMABAD: The trial run of a firewall has resulted in the slowing down of social media, officials privy to the development have confirmed, sparking fear about the future of internet-based businesses in Pakistan.

However, they added, internet traffic will return to its normal pace once the trial is over.

The government allocated more than Rs30 billion in the development budget for the acquisition and installation of this filtering system.

The allocation was made to the Ministry of Information Technology; however, the execution of this project is being done from another power centre. The MoIT's role is not more than a post office in this operation.

An official said that work on the firewall has been in progress since January this year which includes the purchase of the system and its installation which has been done and now it is being commissioned.

The commissioning will take some weeks. Asked if the national filter will impact the internet-based businesses, he said this might be considered a subtle threat, however, the businesses are not its target.

Another official said that this is aimed at social media influencers which, the government thinks, are involved in spreading fake news. The objective is to reduce their reach by blocking their content or making it less visible.

They are already being taken to task through the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act 2016 as the courts are also being set up to try those held accused under this law.

While the firewall is now at the trial stage, an advertisement two weeks ago from the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority suggested as if the paperwork to document this purchase is yet to be started.

An advertisement on July 11 invited tenders for “supply, installation and configuration of Next Generation Firewalls (Ex-Chinese brand – LOT A), Web Application Firewall (WAF) [LOT B] for five years with hardware warranty Next Business Day (NBD) and Support (247/365).” The closing date for submitting is July 26.

However, a PTA spokesperson said this is a separate firewall which leaves one wonder as to how much funds are being spent for having more than one filter as the one mentioned above got a budgetary allocation of more than Rs30 billion.

"The tender is meant for acquisition of firewalls intended for sole use on PTA’s internal IT infrastructure. The procurement is aimed at enhancing the security of PTA’s internal systems and will be used exclusively at PTA’s primary data center and its Disaster Recovery site," said the spokesperson of PTA.

"Specifically, the PTA has issued a tender for the acquisition of four Next Generation Firewalls and two Web Application Firewalls. This move is to ensure robust, layered security for PTA’s internal and application only."

Originally published in The News