ISLAMABAD: Social media accounts of several prominent Pakistani celebrities were once again inaccessible to users in India on Thursday, barely a day after they briefly reappeared online, with Indian officials attributing the reversal to a “technical glitch”, according to India Today.
Accounts of other stars such as Mawra Hocane, Fawad Khan, Saba Qamar, Ahad Raza Mir, Yumna Zaidi, and Danish Taimoor were similarly visible on Wednesday but have since been geo-restricted once more.
In addition to celebrity profiles, major Pakistani YouTube channels also became temporarily accessible before being blocked again.
However, by Thursday morning, the social media handles were once again geo-restricted, India Today reported. A message now appears when attempting to access them on Instagram: “Account not available in India. This is because we complied with a legal request to restrict this content.”
Indian government sources told India Today that the brief unblocking was due to 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,” one official claimed.
The restriction initially came during a wave of digital crackdowns by India in response to the April 22 Pahalgam attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), which left 26 people dead.
India has blamed Pakistan for supporting the militants involved — an allegation Islamabad has strongly denied.
Further bans were imposed after several Pakistani celebrities publicly condemned Indian strikes on May 7 that targeted six sites across Pakistan, all on civilian areas and mosques in Kotli, Bahawalpur, Muridke, Bagh and Muzaffarabad.
The social media backlash led to widespread bans on Pakistani content and personalities in India, though no formal explanation has yet been issued by India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Pakistani celebrities including Fahad Mustafa, Hina Altaf, Hina Khwaja Bayat, Minal Khan and Ushna Shah had strongly criticised the Indian attacks, particularly highlighting the civilian and religious sites targeted by Indian munitions.
The ban’s sudden rollback — and equally abrupt reinforcement— has sparked further speculation over India’s digital censorship and use of geoblocking tools to silence cross-border criticism.
For now, fans across the region continue to express frustration over the politicisation of cultural and entertainment content in an already volatile regional climate.
