- Pakistan and social media
Earlier this year the PTI government had attempted to get a handle on social media after successfully ‘taming’ conventional media. The ill-conceived policy aimed at ‘regulating social media’ required tech giants such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok to set up their offices in Islamabad and within a year create a data server in Pakistan that would be accessible by local authorities such as PTA and FIA as and when required, to retrieve user/subscriber data. Expectedly, none of the companies went for these ridiculous demands and there was considerable outrage at home as well, forcing the government to abandon the idea altogether. Facebook’s latest transparency report sheds some light on how the government, in the second half of 2019, had pursued this incessant need to control online content, often unjustifiably. Pakistan, with 2,300 items restricted by Facebook is the second highest after Russia’s 2,900. For a democratic country to be in close company with a suppressive autocratic setup such as Russia where dissenters either die in freak accidents or commit spontaneous suicides, is quite shameful and should serve as a moment of reflection. None of the material that was removed was due to Facebook’s internal content controls, rather on the request of Pakistani authorities claiming it violated their own laws. Of course, many of the requests, such as about posts with extremist undertones, blasphemous content, anti-judiciary remarks and campaigns to discourage polio vaccination, are all valid requests. But to be one of three countries that make up half of all Facebook content restrictions in a span of just six months is unjustifiably excessive.
It is understandable why the current administration feels that such rampant unchecked censorship is not only doable but also deniable. For two years print and electronic media has been made to self-censor through a concerted strategy of disruption in circulation/broadcast and closure of advertisement if a line is not toed or is crossed. Social media by virtue of being semi-decentralized, and disseminated via the Internet, cannot be controlled much more than what the government currently manages to do. It is a futile exercise that only leads to embarrassment in the international community, which we ill-afford. There is a need to rationalize this practice of requesting content to be removed on a whim just because you can.
