Senate raises concerns over unregistered social media sites

The absence of ministers from Senate proceedings has become so regular that the treasury senators and opposition senators on Friday urged that the chairman take notice of this issue.

During the sessions of the upper house of parliament, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani informed the legislators that he will bring up this matter with the Prime Minister.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Rubina Khalid stated during Question Hour that the issue of blasphemous and offensive information on the internet seems to be beyond the government’s capacity to address it.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was in charge of taking action against such content, she continued, and the issue had been raised numerous times during the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology sessions.

Minister of State for Law and Justice Shahadat Awan retorted that all internet hate speech directed towards any faith would be instantly suppressed.

Awan went on to say that over 5,000 Twitter handles and almost 35,000 Facebook sites had been disabled. He also mentioned that YouTube has blocked 5,800 accounts

He also disclosed to the House that the current administration was drafting legislation to require social media companies to register their businesses in Pakistan.

To propose appropriate legislation for this goal, the Prime Minister constituted the National Social Working Committee in August of last year, the speaker added.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), according to Awan, has so far handled 59,253 URLs connected to complaints of hate speech or sectarian offenses on social media.

A total of 47,674 Websites had been blocked for hate speech as a result of all complaints as of February, he continued.

Awan stated that the PTA had the authority to remove or prevent access to material through any system in the interest of Pakistan’s integrity, security, or defense under Section 37 (1) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PRCA) 2016.

He went on to say that the Removal and Blocking of Illegal Internet Material (Procedure, Oversight, and Safeguard), Regulations, 2021 had been adopted by the federal government by Section 37 (2) of the PEC Act.