Islamabad : Pakistan authorities has banned sending dirty texts after regulators banned 1,600 words it deems obscene.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority gave carriers a list of the words to ban, with a mandate telling them they have only seven days to block the words or face legal action, which could be very strict.
“There are more than 1,600 words in the list including indecent language, expletives, swear words, slang, etc., which have to be filtered,” one of the cellular providers commented.
“The filtering is not good for the system and may degrade the quality of network services — plus it would be a great inconvenience to our subscribers if their SMS was not delivered due to the wrong choice of words.”
Although Pakistan’s constitution guarantees freedom of speech, but the PTA told carriers they could restrict the texts under court rulings and that telecommunications companies are responsible for stopping “obnoxious communication.”
The PTA said it will require mobile companies to report monthly about enforcing the ban, so the ban may continue for some time. The words and phrases banned include 1,109 English words and another 568 in Pakistan’s national Urdu language.
