PTA orders mobile companies to ban rude and obscene text messages

PTA orders mobile companies to ban rude and obscene text messages

Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has sent a letter to the cell phone companies, operating within the country, ordering them to block all text messages that contain obscenities,
rudeness and vulgarity. The purpose behind this attempt is to block spam messages. PTA has refused to comment on the matter for now.

The Official letter by PTA, contains a list of more than 1,500 rude words from English and Urdu, including the F word, flatulence,  b**t, quickie and phrases like beat your meat, pocket
pool, love pistol and crotch rot. After serious deliberation and consultation, officials from PTA, were able to come up with more than 50 phrases, which use the F word "f**k" and 17 involving the word "b**t".

The list also contains several apparently innocuous words and phrases, like "flatulence", "deposit" and "fondle". The prohibition covers more figurative language, including "flogging the
dolphin", 51 terms with the suffix "ass", 17 variants on "tit" and 33 on "cock", with eight obscenities involving the word "foot".

Language wise, the list attached to the letter comprises of 1,109 words and phrases from English to be banned and 586 in Urdu. The telecommunication watchdog’s list has not yet covered
any obscenity in the country’s four main regional languages, Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Balochi, especially Punjab, which is most spoken and understood in the country and also offers many rich possibilities for abuse.

However, the reasons for blocking some words, like Jesus Christ, headlights and tampon, were less clear, which raises questions about religious freedom and practicality. This way, any
word could conceivably be part of a spam message.

PTA spokesperson, Mohammad Younis said that the ban was the result of numerous meetings and consultations with stakeholders after consumers complained of receiving offensive text messages.
He said the list was not finished and the authority would continue to add to it. He also added that nobody would like this happening to their young boy or girl.

The Cell Phone companies have been given seven days to implement the order given by PTA through this letter, which was dispatched on November 14. Furthermore, mobile operators expect that
PTA might fine them if any banned words get through. It means they will have to cut the connection of customers who persistently try to send such messages.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=4306

Posted by Zeeshan Gohar on Nov 22 2011. Filed under Pakistan, Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry