Banning obscene words from texts means monitoring and surveillance

“Pakistan telecoms authority to block ‘obscene’ texts,” BBC News. The Pakistan Telecoms Authority has ordered the screening of text messages to begin by 21 November. “Some people have suggested bypassing the ban by replacing words with their number on the PTA’s list.” Obviously where there is a will to circumvent censorship, there’s a way. Of more interest is that this highlights both the monitoring/surveillance of text messages, the capacity to identify and flag text messages based on keywords, and to track the sources and social connections of such messages. For those sending discipleship materials via cell phone messages, one needs to be constantly thinking through some of the security issues.