On December 30, 2020, according to an article in Dawn, a Lahore High Court chief justice inquired about what action Pakistan’s Federal Investigative Agency could take against someone outside Pakistan spreading blasphemous content, including registering a case against Google.

Additionally in December 2020, the PTA sent notices to the web distributor for Ahmadi websites alhakam.org, alfazl.com, alfazlonline.org, mta.tv and pressahmadiyya.com, all hosted in the U.K.

One of those notices, sent in an email dated December 27, 2020, from a PTA employee, stated that because the content was hosted outside the country, “they are available throughout the country beside blocking restrictions imposed by [the] PTA.” It instructed the owners to “take immediate necessary measures so that these are not served in the country.”

Ultimately, the PTA stated it had removed access to Trueislam.com within Pakistan in a January 22, 2021, press release.

Throughout 2021, the PTA continued to send notices to 24 additional Ahmadiyya websites, including trueislam.co.uk, ameauk.org, Ahmadiyya.uk, lajna.org.uk, khuddam.org.uk, makhzan.org, amjinternational.org, alshirakat.org, islamahmadiyya.net, whyahmadi.org and lifeofmuhammad.org.uk in the U.K.; trueislam.com.au in Australia; khuddam.ca and jamiaahmadiyya.ca in Canada; trueislam.com.au in Australia; Ahmadiyya.org.se in Singapore; Ahmadiyya.ch in Switzerland and ahmadiyyagallery.org and mkausa.org in the U.S.

All of those websites were eventually blocked by the PTA within Pakistan.

As recently as June 2022, the PTA decided to block the website ansarusa.com in Pakistan.

According to Khan, unlike Google and Apple, which have acquiesced to the PTA’s requests, Twitter and Wikimedia, the parent company of Wikipedia, have not removed Ahmadiyya content. He said that Twitter sent notices informing Ahmadiyya-related account owners that requests have been made to remove their content but have not taken the requested actions as far as he knows.

Likewise, Wikimedia has continued to host Ahmadi content.

But for Harris Zafar, national spokesperson for Ahmadiyya Press USA, tech companies’ compliance is only worsening the persecution against Ahmadis. “Big tech companies have actually fanned the flames of persecution by acquiescing to Pakistan’s demands.”

Khan understands that tech companies do not want to lose access to countries with millions of users over so-called “domestic issues.” However, he says that “if you truly are benefiting from free speech, and making so much money off of robust proliferation of speech, why would you selectively restrict it when it comes to the free speech of communities that are being targeted by the government? … By doing so, tech companies are unfortunately complicit in their repression.”

He points out that virulent videos calling for the killing of Ahmadis remain on YouTube while videos of peace-loving Ahmadis are removed because they are “offensive.”

“The people who should be protected are the people who are being prosecuted,” Khan said.

But Khan says that Pakistan attempting to define who is or is not a Muslim is “the single greatest threat to a unified Muslim community. No Muslim has the right to define the inner convictions … of someone’s heart.”

While any change to how other Muslims view Ahmadis will take a generational shift and acknowledgement of Ahmadis as Muslims from a constitutional approach, Khan says, “We will continue to courageously fight against religious repression wherever it is, to whoever it is, because our faith commands it. Islam stands for religious freedom for all.”

Isabella Meibauer is a freelance writer with a focus on South and Southeast Asia. She earned a degree in religion from The King’s College in New York City.