PTA lists most blocked URLs in Pakistan as YouTube tops the chart

YouTube records the highest blocking rate

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has shared new figures showing its content moderation actions through July 2026. According to the report, the authority processed 1,726,303 URLs and blocked 1,542,800 of them.

The report shows that 76,874 URLs are still under review, while 106,629 requests were rejected. Overall, the blocking rate reached 89.37 percent across all digital platforms.

Among the major social media platforms, YouTube recorded the highest blocking rate. The PTA blocked 66,290 out of 74,823 processed URLs, giving the platform a blocking rate of 88.60 percent.

Facebook, TikTok and X also affected

Facebook had the highest number of processed URLs among major social media platforms. The PTA reviewed 287,362 URLs, blocked 230,270, kept 20,321 under review and rejected 36,771 requests.

TikTok ranked second with 195,625 processed URLs. The authority blocked 170,231 URLs, kept 14,094 under review and rejected 11,300 requests, resulting in a blocking rate of 87.02 percent.

The PTA also processed 143,670 URLs linked to X, formerly known as Twitter. It blocked 74,236 URLs, while 28,359 remain under review and 41,075 requests were rejected.

X recorded the lowest blocking rate among the major social media platforms at 51.67 percent. Instagram had 54,335 processed URLs, with 45,510 blocked, giving it a blocking rate of 83.76 percent.

Messaging apps and other websites

WhatsApp also saw a high number of blocked URLs. Out of 55,414 processed URLs, the PTA blocked 50,165, while 2,908 remain under review and 2,341 were rejected, resulting in a blocking rate of 90.53 percent.

SnackVideo recorded 8,329 processed URLs, of which 7,225 were blocked. Bigo and Likee together had 6,730 processed URLs, with 6,539 blocked.

The “Others/Miscellaneous” category recorded the largest number of cases. Out of 899,415 processed URLs, the PTA blocked 891,772, resulting in the highest blocking rate of 99.15 percent.

The latest figures show that the PTA continues to increase online content moderation across many digital platforms. The data also highlights that different platforms face different levels of regulatory action depending on the type of reported content.

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