Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s directive to immediately restore Wikipedia is a heartening development but the very fact that such stifling measures are very well in play under his watch poses several discomforting questions. That Pakistan has not realised in the twenty-third year of the Digital Age the futile nature of internet censorship can only be understood as a naked power play. Nothing more. Nothing else. Using the same argument of “sacrilegious content” more than a decade after the notorious YouTube ban, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had earlier decided to ban the popular encyclopedia across the country over its said non-compliance with the official instructions. While such knee-jerk measures to take care of the “objectionable” material may win the hearts of hardliners whose emotions appear ever-so-ready to be incensed, it is high time the state realises the crippling opportunity cost. By bolting the covers shut on a free, crowdsourced website used by millions as a primary mode of reference just because of one bad entry, were we not handing down a stringent sentence to our youth? Instead of making use of the editable nature of the largest knowledge repository to correct the record, those sitting in powerful positions preferred to burn down the entire library. Logic works in mysteriously ironic ways in this peculiar land! We have previously seen how bans on platforms like Youtube and Facebook did little to their popularity among the masses. Skyrocketing rankings of proxy sites were a testament to the fact that traffic to these websites continued as usual, albeit through different routes. However, this is not a social networking website and much of the material pertains to information, not entertainment. A very likely consequence of this regressive move would have been for many among the fifth most populous nation in the world to give up on the pursuit of knowledge altogether. Should we then brace ourselves for a generation that wears blinkers and has had minds closed off by default? By showing them how freedom of speech is a bendable doll and fundamental human rights do not enjoy a high ranking on the priorities list, we are very happily paving the ground for a far more intolerant tomorrow. *