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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan&rsquo;s domestic internet connections have increased sharply from 1.9 million in 2024 to 5.10 million in 2026, a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was informed on Monday. According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister&rsquo;s Office in Islamabad, the briefing was given during a review meeting on the affairs of the Federal Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom. The meeting was informed that Pakistan&rsquo;s IT exports are expected to reach 4.5 to 4.6 billion dollars during the current fiscal year. Officials told the Prime Minister that Pakistan recently conducted a 5G spectrum auction, which was described in the briefing as the world&rsquo;s largest auction of its kind since 2016.<div class="fr-embed"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 697px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=2053724980081562034&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=f27a06db15f0d707d5c37bd01049a4d6788cc47b&theme=light&widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&width=550px">&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div></div> &ldquo;The auction generated revenue of 509 million US dollars for Pakistan,&rdquo; the briefing stated. The meeting was further informed that Indus AI Week was organized in February 2025 across 30 cities of the country, where 88 pavilions were established and more than 100 international delegates participated. Officials said fibre connectivity has also been provided to government schools and health units in Islamabad as part of the government&rsquo;s digital development initiatives. Addressing the meeting, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said promotion of the IT sector and enhancement of IT-related exports remain among the government&rsquo;s top priorities. The Prime Minister directed authorities to expedite work on establishing Easy Service Centers in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He also instructed officials to accelerate the launch of Easy Service facilities in provinces in collaboration with provincial governments. &ldquo;To reduce the gap between urban and rural areas in the IT sector, cooperation from governments at the provincial and district levels should be obtained,&rdquo; the Prime Minister said. The meeting was informed that the provision of free internet hotspots in Islamabad is in its final stages, while E-learning pods are being installed in Saidpur Model Village and Fatima Jinnah Park.

Education

Pakistan’s internet connections rose from 1.9 million to 5.1 million in 2026, PM Shehbaz Sharif was informed, as IT exports, 5G expansion, and nationwide digital connectivity initiatives accelerated.

Pakistan’s domestic internet connections rise to 5.1 million: PM told

SYDNEY: Australia is investigating Facebook, TikTok and YouTube for possible breaches of the country&#39;s under-16 social media ban, accusing the big tech companies on Tuesday of &quot;failing to obey&quot; the world-leading laws. Australia in December banned under-16s from a raft of the world&#39;s most popular social media sites, citing the need to protect young minds from &quot;predatory algorithms&quot; filled with sex and violence. Three months since the landmark laws came into effect, Australia&#39;s online safety watchdog found a &quot;substantial proportion of Australian children&quot; were still scrolling banned platforms. &quot;Australia&#39;s world-leading social media laws are not failing. But big tech is failing to obey the laws,&quot; Communications Minister Anika Wells told reporters. &quot;Australia will not let the social media giants take us for mugs.&quot; Australia&#39;s eSafety Commission flagged &quot;significant concerns&quot; about Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. &quot;None of this is impossible. None of this is even difficult for big tech, who are innovative billion-dollar companies,&quot; Wells said. &quot;If these companies want to do business in Australia, they must obey Australian laws.&quot; Australia would decide on any punishments by mid-2026. Tech companies face fines of up to $33.9 million (Aus$49.5 million) under the laws. More than five million accounts belonging to underage Australian users have been removed since the laws came into effect, the eSafety Commission said. A growing body of research suggests that too much time online is taking a toll on teen well-being. Australia&#39;s ban has been hailed as a godsend for parents sick of seeing children glued to their phones. It has also drawn interest across the globe -- with Malaysia, France, New Zealand and Indonesia among the nations now eyeing similar measures. Although social media companies have pledged to abide by the laws, they have warned that the measures could instead push teenagers into dark, unregulated corners of the internet. Prove itMeta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said accurately proving users&#39; ages had been &quot;a challenge for the whole industry&quot;. It told AFP it would &quot;keep investing in enforcement to detect and remove under-16 accounts&quot;. Image-sharing platform Snapchat told AFP it was &quot;fully committed to implementing reasonable steps under the legislation&quot; and had so far locked 450,000 accounts. TikTok said it had no comment, while inquiries on YouTube did not receive a reply. Social media companies bear the sole responsibility for checking that Australia-based users are 16 or older. They must prove they have taken &quot;reasonable steps&quot; to weed out young teenagers, although it remains unclear how this will be interpreted by the government. Some platforms have said they would use AI tools to estimate ages based on photos, while users could also choose to prove their age by uploading a government ID. Online discussion site Reddit has filed a legal challenge against Australia&#39;s ban, which it described as &quot;legally erroneous&quot;. The US-based company said there were serious privacy concerns associated with platforms verifying age, with the collection of personal data creating a risk of leaks or hacks. Reddit&#39;s challenge is yet to be heard in Australia&#39;s High Court.

This file photo shows the icons of different social media applications. (AFP/FILE)

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Three months since the landmark laws came into effect, Australia's online safety watchdog found a "substantial proportion of Australian children" were still scrolling banned platforms.


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Pakistan’s domestic internet connections rise to 5.1 million: PM told

Australia investigates tech giants over social media ban breaches