ISLAMABAD: In tit-far-tat response, the Pakistan government has banned online streaming of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on local platforms in the country.
The decision comes in response to India’s ban on online streaming of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) following the attack in Pahalgam in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The Facebook and Instagram pages of Lahore Qalandars, the most popular cricket franchise of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), have been blocked for viewers in India.
According to a spokesperson for the franchise, users in India are not able to access Lahore Qalandars’ social media pages. The spokesperson said that viewers in India are receiving a message saying that your pages are not available in India. No clear reason has been revealed by the social media platforms for this ban yet. According to initial information provided by Instagram, the ban has been imposed in India under the local law on information and technology. According to a government notification, the ban was imposed on Friday night and will apply to all platforms that were previously showing IPL matches in Pakistan. Earlier, India had blocked the social media accounts of several prominent Pakistani cricketers. There was no official directive for the ban, but Indian users of X reported that they were now unable to access the profiles of Pakistani stars like Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf.
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