ISLAMABAD, 26 December, 2020, (TON): The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has issued notices to Google Inc and Wikipedia for "disseminating sacrilegious content" through the two platforms, it emerged on Friday.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) called for the immediate removal of "unlawful content" from Google. The regulators pointed to pages that show "misleading search results associated with 'present khalifa of Islam' and an unauthentic version of the Holy Quran uploaded by the Ahmedi community on Google Play Store".

"Complaints were also received regarding hosting of caricatures and dissemination of misleading, wrong, deceptive and deceitful information through articles published on Wikipedia portraying Mirza Masroor Ahmad as a Muslim," the PTA said in a statement.

"The platform has been issued the notice under the Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguard) Rules 2020 to remove sacrilegious content to avoid any legal action by the regulator."

"After extensive communication on the matter, Wikipedia has been finally served with the notice to remove the sacrilegious content to avoid any legal action," the statement said.

"In case the platforms remain non-compliant, PTA shall be constrained to initiate further action under Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA) and Rules 2020," the Pakistani regulator added.

In recent months, the government of Pakistan has sought to exercise greater control over the digital sphere by approving a draft policy on objectionable content.