The government of Pakistan is trying to implement censorship on its telecommunications companies in order to “save” its citizens from obscenities like “sex,” “monkey crotch” and “Jesus Christ.”
The plan is currently being delayed after facing some push-back from free-speech advocates but believe it is only a matter of time before it’s implemented. The list would include roughly 1,600 words in English and Urdu and it includes generally-accepted obscene words as well as words like “poop,” “harder” and “fairy.”
The national telecoms aren’t exactly happy with the plans but these companies may be powerless to stop it.
“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,” an anonymous telecom executive told the AFP.
You know, for all the grumbling we do about U.S carriers nickel and diming us for texts or killing unlimited data plans, it could be a lot worse. That doesn’t mean we should let these companies off easy, though.