Karachi, July 3, 2025: Social media accounts of several prominent Pakistani celebrities, including Hania Aamir, Shahid Afridi, and Mahira Khan, have once again been blocked for users in India — barely a day after they briefly became accessible, reportedly due to a “technical glitch.”
The blocked accounts also include those of Mawra Hocane, Fawad Khan, Saba Qamar, Ahad Raza Mir, Yumna Zaidi, and Danish Taimoor. In addition, several major Pakistani YouTube channels were also temporarily visible to Indian users before being geo-restricted again by Thursday morning, India Today reported.
Users attempting to access these profiles on Instagram now encounter a message stating:
“Account not available in India. This is because we complied with a legal request to restrict this content.”
According to Indian officials quoted by an Indian daily, the brief restoration of access was the result of a technical issue.
“If you can see some accounts either on X, YouTube or Meta, they will be inaccessible in a few hours. Some technical glitch led to the unblocking. Rectified now,” an official claimed.
The initial restrictions were imposed as part of India’s broader digital crackdown following the April 22 Pahalgam attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), which killed 26 people. India blamed Pakistan for supporting the assailants — an allegation Islamabad has strongly denied.
The bans intensified after several Pakistani celebrities condemned the May 7 Indian airstrikes on Pakistani civilian areas and religious sites in Kotli, Bahawalpur, Muridke, Bagh, and Muzaffarabad. Celebrities including Fahad Mustafa, Hina Altaf, Hina Khwaja Bayat, Minal Khan, and Ushna Shah publicly criticised the attacks, prompting an apparent retaliatory clampdown on their online presence in India.
India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has yet to issue a formal explanation for the bans or the temporary access. The opaque handling has fueled speculation over India’s growing use of geoblocking and digital censorship to suppress voices critical of its policies, particularly regarding Kashmir and cross-border hostilities.
The sudden rollback — and reimposition — of restrictions has further agitated fans and observers across South Asia, many of whom have decried the politicisation of art, entertainment, and cultural expression in an increasingly tense regional climate.
As of now, users in India remain unable to access the social media profiles and content of numerous Pakistani artists, despite growing calls for the de-escalation of digital censorship.
