On Sunday, at least two online tools contradicted the government’s claims of consistent internet services, highlighting widespread difficulties users experienced when accessing social media.
According to the Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA), a tool from the Internet Intelligence Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology, these interruptions spanned several hours. Despite the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) levels indicating network stability, IODA detected significant disruptions based on traffic flows to Google services.
A network expert explained to Dawn that the stability of BGP routes, which serve as unique identifiers for major internet providers, typically indicates no extensive outages have occurred. However, any instability in BGP could point to widespread network issues generally caused by events such as submarine cable faults or data centre fires.
⚠️ Confirmed: Metrics show a significant decline in internet connectivity in multiple regions of #Ukraine; the incident comes as Russia launches a massive missile-drone attack on the Ukrainian energy system with impacts attributed to physical damage as well as emergency shutdowns pic.twitter.com/QQTReYk5XB
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) November 28, 2024Nevertheless, despite the overall network stability, IODA noted disruptions in internet traffic, particularly to Google platforms like the search engine, YouTube, and Gmail. It uses traffic to these services as a benchmark to assess regional internet stability.
Read: Pakistan Govt Responds to Nationwide Internet Outages
Specifically, IODA documented disruptions in Google service traffic from Pakistan from Saturday at 10 PM to Sunday at 8:30 AM and then again from 1:30 PM to 6 PM. The expert noted that this traffic serves as a general indicator of internet usage, and a deviation from the norm suggests restrictions in internet access.
Additionally, the tool Downdetector, which monitors outages on social media websites through user complaints, confirmed these findings. It verified ongoing issues with accessing Google services such as Gmail and YouTube.
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Downdetector also documented disruptions on WhatsApp, noting that about 52% of users reported messaging issues, 27% encountered problems with voice notes, and 21% experienced general application issues.
Reports from various cities, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and Peshawar, indicated widespread difficulties with social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, affecting a broad user base nationwide.
