Dirty Texting Banned By Pakistan Telecom Authority

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Leslie Horn By Leslie Horn
* November 20, 2011 11:50am EST

Dirty Texting Banned By Pakistan Telecom Authority | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Sexting is about to get a lot harder in Pakistan (no pun intended). The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has handed down a ban on about 1,600 terms and phrases it has deemed obscene, including the word "harder," for one.

Carriers were given the list on November 14 with a letter telling them they have seven days to block the words on their networks, or face legal action.

Words on the list, which has been floating around on Twitter, run the gamut from "barf" to "Jesus Christ" to "back door" to "do me."

"There are more than 1,600 words in the list including indecent language, expletives, swear words, slang, etc., which have to be filtered," an "official" at a one of the telecoms told the AFP. "The filtering is not good for the system and may degrade the quality of network services - plus it would be a great inconvenience to our subscribers if their SMS was not delivered due to the wrong choice of words."

The officials that compiled the list must have vivid imaginations. Published in both English and Urdu, it includes such words and phrases as "idiot," "monkey crotch," "athlete's foot," "damn," "deeper," "four twenty," "fornicate," "looser," and "go to hell," among others. There are also various double entendres included in the ban such as "beat your meat" or "flogging the dolphin."

Twitter users are lashing out against the ban under the hashtag #PTABannedList.

As of Sunday, texts including the barred words were still being transmitted, the AFP said. However, the Guardian pointed out that according to its tests, the technology blocking the "offensive" texts might not be totally effective.

Pakistan's constitution guarantees freedom of speech, however the Guardian said the PTA told carriers that this right "was 'not unrestricted' under court rulings." It also said that telecoms are responsible to stop "obnoxious communication."

Going forward, the PTA will also require mobile companies to submit a monthly report on their implementation of the ban.

The PTA has not commented publicly on the matter.

For more from Leslie, follow her on Twitter @LesHorn.

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