Over 100 social media accounts blocked in Pak over 'anti-state' activities

ISLAMABAD: Over 100 social media accounts have been blocked in Pakistan for promoting sectarianism, anti-state, terrorist, and anti-Islam activities, at the request of the capital police, Dawn reported.

Dawn is a Pakistani English-language newspaper.

Police officers said that, so far, 106 social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been blocked through the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The step was taken in response to the findings of the Provisional of Violent Extremism Unit (PVE) of the capital police's Counterterrorism Department (CTD), police officers said, according to Dawn.

"The PVE is monitoring the individual's social media accounts involved in different illegal activities, including sectarianism, anti-state, terrorism, and anti-Islam."

The officers said, so far, the unit had recommended blocking 203 accounts, 164 Twitter, 38 Facebook, and one YouTube, of which 106 have been blocked by now.

In this regard, separate requests were sent by the Counterterrorism Department to the FIA for the closure of each account with the details, along with screenshots of illegal activities, as per Dawn.

The Express Tribune recently reported that the Pakistan Senate was informed that the government is working on legislation to compel social media platforms to register themselves in Pakistan.

During Question Hour, Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Rubina Khalid said that the government appeared to be helpless on the issue of blasphemous and derogatory content on the internet.

She added that the matter had been taken up several times during the meetings of the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and it was the responsibility of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to take action against such content, reported The Express Tribune.

Minister of State for Law and Justice Shahadat Awan replied that online hate speech against any religion would be blocked immediately.