The speed of social media in the country has slowed down due to the use of a firewall on an experimental basis. This has been reported by informed authorities who are aware of the situation. This is the reason why there is fear regarding the future of internet-based businesses in the country.
However, these officials say that internet traffic and speed will return to normal after the trial ends. The government has allocated more than 30 billion rupees in the development budget to acquire and install this filtering system.
These funds were given to the Ministry of Information Technology. Still, another center of power is running the project and the Ministry of Information Technology’s role in this project is no more than a post office.
An official said that work on the firewall has been going on since January this year, including procurement and installation of the system.
Now the system has been installed and is being commissioned and it will take a few weeks to hand over the control of the system to the concerned authorities.
When asked if the firewall would affect businesses connected to the Internet, the official replied that there could be a risk, but the system is not aimed at business or commercial activities.
Another official said the system is aimed at controlling social media influencers who are involved in spreading fake news in the eyes of the government. The purpose of the firewall is to hide or block the content of these influencers.
These steps are already being taken through the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, of 2016 and courts are also being set up to try those caught under the Act. Now that the firewall is in the testing stages, two weeks ago a PTA advertisement tried to give the impression that it was on the way and that the paperwork was being initiated.
An advertisement on July 11 called for tenders for the supply, installation and configuration of “Next Generation Firewalls (Formerly Chinese Brand – LOT A), Web Application Firewall (WAF) [LOT B] Hardware Warranty for five years Next Business Day (NBD) and Support (all days of the year and every hour of the day), last date for tender submission is 26th July.
However, the PTA spokesperson has said that it is a separate firewall, wondering how much funds have been allocated for more than one filter, as more than Rs 30 billion for the purchase of the above equipment. The budget was allocated.
“The purpose of the tender is to procure firewalls for the sole use of PTA’s internal IT infrastructure. The purpose of the procurement is to enhance the security of PTA’s internal systems specifically for PTA’s core data center and It will be used at the disaster recovery site.
Specifically, PTA has issued a tender for the procurement of four Next-Generation Firewalls and two Web Application Firewalls. A PTA spokesperson said that this move is only to ensure strong, layered security for PTA’s internal systems and applications.