Pakistan PM’s X post to Trump draws mockery, VPN questions

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is at the center of ridicule and criticism after netizens accused him of using a VPN to post a congratulatory message to former U.S. President Donald Trump on the banned social media platform X.

Sharif on Saturday posted a message to Trump on X, formerly known as Twitter, congratulating him on his “historic victory” in the 2024 U.S. presidential election and expressing his desire to “strengthen and broaden the Pakistan-US partnership.”

But within minutes, a community note appeared on the post — potentially from a group of X users — pointing out that Sharif was using a VPN, or virtual private network, to access the platform, which has been banned in Pakistan since April.

Congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump on his historic victory for a second term! I look forward to working closely with the incoming Administration to further strengthen and broaden the Pakistan-U.S. partnership. @realDonaldTrump

— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) November 6, 2024

“PM Shehbaz Sharif has banned X (formerly Twitter) in Pakistan. He is using a VPN to access X, which is unlawful according to Pakistani law,” the note said.

The claim that Sharif used a VPN couldn’t be independently verified by the Daily Dot, and the community note has since been removed. However, the note was widely circulated on social media and picked up by local and international news outlets.

It’s unclear whether X has taken any action against Sharif’s post, but the note was shared across the site and warned that “people in the same community” were flagging the post as “crossing the line” and “misleading.”

Sharif’s post drew a mix of mockery and criticism on social media, with many Pakistanis pointing out the irony of a leader congratulating the former U.S. president on a banned platform while Pakistani citizens were restricted from accessing it.

Take one user, who said, “Most corrupt and dictator puppet in history of Pakistan is congratulating Trump.”

Another shared the community note with the comment, “Pakistani PM taken to cleaners by his audience.”

And a third user tagged Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in a post on X, writing, “Mr. Trump, this joker using VPN to congratulate you .. Btw, Elon Musk’s platform has been banned in Pakistan!!!”

Pakistan banned X in April after the platform refused to remove content allegedly inciting violence in the country’s Balochistan province. At the time, the country’s interior ministry said that X “will remain blocked” until it complies with a list of demands. X has since said that it’s “in discussions” with the Pakistani government.

The Pakistani government has also sought to regulate VPN usage, reportedly limiting access to VPNs in the country and later clarifying that it wasn’t banning the technology outright.

That hasn’t stopped some Pakistanis from being caught off guard by VPN issues in recent months. In September, some X users in the country were unable to access the site due to what appeared to be PTA-imposed outages on VPNs.

The PTA has denied any involvement in the outages, and X — which is banned in Pakistan — said that the platform itself hadn’t taken action to restrict VPNs.