Key points:
- After the government approved blanket powers to authorities to censor digital content, the Internet, as well as technology companies.
- The coalition said that it was “alarmed by the scope of the new Pakistani law targeting internet businesses.
- It said the new rules would make it impossible for its members to make their services accessible to Pakistani users and businesses.”
- Pakistan also wants social media platforms to have their headquarters in the country.
- The new development comes weeks after the government of Khan temporarily suspended the TikTok video-sharing website.
After the government approved blanket powers to authorities to censor digital content, the Internet, as well as technology companies, have threatened to leave Pakistan, a move critics claim was aimed at curtailing freedom of speech in the authoritarian Islamic country.
Thursday’s Asia Internet Alliance alert, which represents global technology giants like Google, Facebook as well as Twitter, came after Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government granted government media regulators expanded powers on Wednesday.
The coalition said that it was “alarmed by the scope of the new Pakistani law targeting internet businesses, as well as the opaque process of the government by which these rules were developed.”
Social media networks or internet service providers face a fine of up to $3.14 million under the new legislation for failing to curtail the dissemination of material perceived to be Islamic defamatory, encouraging extremism, hate speech, pornography, or other content considered to threaten national security.
According to Pakistan’s DAWN newspaper, social media firms are expected to provide Pakistan’s appointed investigation agency ‘with any information or data is decoded, readable as well as comprehensible format.’ Pakistan also wants social media platforms to have their headquarters in the country.
The coalition said the “draconian requirements for data localization would harm people’s ability to access a free as well as open Internet and shut down the digital economy in Pakistan from the rest of the world.
” It said the new rules would make it impossible for its members to make their services accessible to Pakistani users and businesses.”
There was no immediate response from the government of Khan, which consistently claimed that it was not against freedom of speech.
Khan’s office had earlier said that after witnessing a delayed reaction to the deletion of anti-Pakistan, obscene as well as sectarian-related material from social media platforms since 2018, when the government of Khan came to power, the new rules were made.
Social media companies are required under the new regulations to delete or block any illegal material from their websites within 24 hours of being reported by Pakistani authorities.
The new development comes weeks after the government of Khan temporarily suspended the TikTok video-sharing website, claiming it took the measure after receiving ‘immoral as well as indecent’ content complaints.
