Pakistan restores social media apps after temporary block on security grounds

Pakistan restored Facebook, Twitter and several other social media apps yesterday after blocking them for about five hours on security grounds amid a crackdown against a violent Islamist group, officials said. 

"In order to maintain public order and safety, access to certain social media applications has been restricted temporarily," a senior telecommunications authority official told Reuters earlier, without specifying which social media.

The interior ministry said in a statement the block would last until 1500 local time (1000 GMT) and applied to YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Telegram and Tiktok.