Back in August it was reported that Pakistan aimed to ban eVPNs, or encrypted virtual private networks, to tighten their leash and increase cyber security with the rise in documented cyber attacks.  This wasn’t a welcome development by Pakistanis, as this invades privacy and eliminates anonymity.

Kit Dotson, our HackANGLE editor, stated that it’s like they’re asking for Anonymous, the hacktivist collective known for fighting for the freedom rights, to hack them.

But it doesn’t look like Pakistan is threatened by Anonymous, and the damage that the group could do to their system as they are now seeking to filter SMS.

On November 14, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority sent out a list of more than 1,600 banned words and phrases to mobile operators.  The mobile operators were given one week to put the list in their system so that text messages containing any of the banned words or phrases would not be sent to the recepient.

“There are more than 1,600 words in the list including indecent language, expletives, swear words, slang etc, which have to be filtered,” an official at a telecoms firm told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.  “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,” the source said.

In the list of more than 1,600 banned words and phrases, 1,109 words and phrases are in English and 586 in the national language, Urdu, a tongue that also offers many rich possibilities for abuse.  Here are some of the words and phrases included are: “quickie”, “fairy”, “Jesus Christ”, “monkey crotch”, “athlete’s foot”, “idiot”, “damn”, “deeper”, “four twenty”, “go to hell”, “harder”, “looser”, “no sex”, “strap-on”, “beat your meat”, “crotch rot”, “love pistol”, “pocket pool”, “quickie”, “flatulence”, “deposit”, “fondle”, “flogging the dolphin”, more than 50 phrases using the word “fuck”, 17 involving “butt”, 51 terms with the suffix “ass”, 17 variants on “tit”, 33 on “cock”, and eight obscenities involving the word “foot.”

The point is, not all the words are obscene like foot, fairy and deposit.  Those words can indeed be taken out of context but seriously, what if you were talking about spraining your foot like, “Sorry I can’t go out tonight, sprained my foot earlier,” would that message be banned?  Or what if you’re asking your friends, “Do you know where I could buy a fairy doll? It’s my niece’s birthday and that’s what she wants,” is that counted as obscene?  And what if you’re talking about bank matters like, “The line’s too long at the bank today.  I wasn’t able to deposit the check,” would your network ban your message?

The ban will supposedly start today but since the news of the ban surfaced, people showed their disappointment on Twitter.  While some made jokes, others are outraged, as this act by the PTA clearly violates privacy, going through every message into their system to read messages.

What if this happens to you?  Would you idly stand by and watch as your government take away your freedom and prevent you from voicing out what you really feel? It’s a question we don’t have to often ask ourselves, but it’s something that shouldn’t be taken for granted.

image credit: radicalgraphics