It will now be only family texting as PTA blocked 1500 words

By jazbablog - Sat Nov 19, 1:23 am

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Edited byjazbablog

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has officially sent a letter to cellular companies ordering them to block more than 1500 words which contained obscenities.

According to details PTA has also sent a list of more than 1,500 English and Urdu words that were to be blocked. The order was part of the regulator’s attempt to block spam messages.

The reasons for blocking some words, including Jesus Christ, headlights and tampon, were less clear, raising questions about religious freedom and practicality. Any word could conceivably be part of a spam message.

Its not yet clear what would happened to the text message that contained the banned word.

The cell phone companies have been given seven days to implement the order while the cellular companies said that it is a big issue, so will be examined carefully from all points of view.

Click here to read the PTA’s official letter that was sent to cellular companies.

On the other hand Pakistani texters look furious over PTA’s decision and call it a dump move made by the company.

“They’ve just left words “ok” and “thankyou”, the company has gone crazy, but those who want to use these words they just will” said Saba Azeem.

Another texter Kashmala Kakakhel said that “i do appreciate that they have banned abuses however banning random words even JESUS Christ does’nt make sense to me”

A web surfer Afan Javed said “I don’t appreciate that they have banned stuff. Its really stupid. Can they shut people’s mouths? No they can’t. Its is a social issue that needs to be addressed Socially. Did Zia achieve any thing by banning things – just oppression of poor. Elite escapes anyways!”

An American Christan while commenting on a website said “As a Christian, I am offended that “Jesus Christ” name is included in that list of Filth! We in the U.S. could never get away with a list that banned the transmission of a list of offensive words, and include “Mohammad”! The ACLU would never hear the end of the lawsuits. Beside, the whole thing is stupid. Looks like the people over “there”, sure know their dirty words pretty well, to come up with a list like That! ”

List of Urdu Words
List of English Words