AN attempted solution must not perpetuate or worsen a problem. The latest brainchild of the National Counter Terrorism Authority is a smartphone app to help fight extremism. Launched with some fanfare in a ceremony in Islamabad, with Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal attending as chief guest, the Nacta app purports to allow the public to anonymously report instances of alleged hate speech. Complaints thus lodged will be vetted by an unspecified committee among law-enforcement agencies, including the FIA. Certainly, the fight against extremism is a vital component of the moribund National Action Plan and attempts to revive the plan are welcome. What is not welcome is a publicity stunt disguised as serious action, especially when the newly launched app could entrap law-abiding citizens and reveal the identity of individuals correctly reporting actual hate speech. The government ought to seriously reconsider its attempt to turn citizens against each other and provide malicious actors a tool with which to harass and intimidate peaceful individuals.

The Nacta app and its potential efficacy cannot be seen in isolation. Hate speech, properly considered and defined under the Anti Terrorism Act and superior judiciary rulings, is a significant problem in the country. But the extremism that NAP envisages fighting as a priority is propagated by well-entrenched networks, many of which operate openly and brazenly. There is no smartphone app based on citizen reporting that is needed to locate and dismantle extremist networks backed by violence; only coordinated action by the intelligence and security apparatuses can address such threats. But the problem with the app is not merely that it will be ineffective in dealing with actual hate speech, it is also open to gross abuse and may even promote vigilantism. While Nacta insists that the legal definition of hate speech will be applied when vetting complaints, it has also admitted to having no investigatory powers.

What that means in practice is that individuals reporting hate speech could well use their own, wholly illegal and malicious standards to file such reports, and agencies such as the FIA can harass or intimidate law-abiding citizens on the basis of false complaints. Moreover, because the promised anonymity to anyone using the app to lodge a complaint cannot be guaranteed by the very design of the app, the identity of individuals who file legitimate complaints against organised extremist networks could be exposed to the latter. Perhaps Nacta and the interior ministry mean to try and stem the tide of negative news about Pakistan’s floundering counter-extremism efforts. If so, few of Pakistan’s serious partners externally or stakeholders domestically will be convinced or reassured. Better to focus on a wholesale revamping of Nacta and re-energising of NAP than to attempt ad hoc interventions that could turn citizen against citizen and promote vigilantism. The Nacta smartphone app is a bad idea come to dangerous life.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2018