ISLAMABAD: The Pakis­tan Telecommunication Aut­h­ority (PTA) on Friday bri­efed a parliamentary body about the government directive to make rules under the Prevention of Elec­tronic Crimes Act, 2016 for social media monitoring and enhancing technical capability to check blasphemous material on the internet.

Retired Maj Gen Amir Azeem Bajwa, chairman of the PTA, informed the Sen­ate committee that the IT and law ministries were wor­king on it. “We will soon have something to monitor blasphemous material on social media. Companies that provide social media services are not sensitive to our sensitivities,” he reasoned.

While giving a briefing to the Senate special committee examining purported grievances among sections of society to reach out aggrieved persons and create national cohesion, senior officials of the PTA and the cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) explained the steps taken by them so far.

The committee was informed that Facebook entertained some requests when Pakistan government asked its management to block/remove objectionable material. But Twitter did not respond to a single such instance out of the 6,137 complaints shared with it, the committee was told.

The PTA chairman said almost all the material blocked on the internet in Pakistan had been without technical and scientific assistance from the enterprises that own social media services. However, he said: “Since millions of web pages are uploaded on the internet on a daily basis, continuous and collective efforts are needed to combat this menace.”

Retired Maj Gen Bajwa said the PTA with assistance from some other stakeholders managed to identify and block around 50,000 websites containing blasphemous material. In all, more than 850,000 URLs, links and websites, mostly porn sites, have been blocked since 2010, according to a PTA official.

The official broke it down for the Senate committee members that some 230 Dailymotion links and URLs have been blocked, more than 15,800 Facebook links and URLs containing blasphemous content have been blocked, some 6,624 links and URLs on Youtube and some 22,000 links and URLs have been blocked on miscellaneous platforms.

According to the PTA chairman, content on these websites was offensive and did not generate healthy intellectual discussion. He said it was surprising that the host companies did not block blasphemous materials though they had dedicated teams to check objectionable content online and block it.

When asked about a permanent ban on social media websites such as in China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, which did not allow their citizens to access Facebook, Youtube and Whatsapp, the PTA chairman said: “In case lawmakers here do consider such a decision, it will be easier to monitor blasphemous content.

“Other than that, the government has given clear directions to enhance technical capabilities to monitor the internet as well as form rules under PECA to check social media.”

He said that while China had blocked Facebook but Google had a different business model. “China offered an alternative to these popular social media services and was successful. We will also have to offer indigenous solutions as alternative and make users switch if parliamentarians decide to do so,” the PTA chairman added.

When PTI Senator Samina Abid asked about reports regarding Pakistan being hub of child pornography material, retired Maj Gen Bajwa dispelled the misconception. But he said it was not possible to control the dark web anywhere in the world. “It is not easy to completely block social media despite strict monitoring of Whatsapp and Facebook etc in China, the UAE and Saudi Arabia,” he said.

FIA Director (cybercrime) Afzal Butt asked the Senate committee for support to enhance its capabilities. “We lack transport and furniture and computers [we have are] insufficient to check the emerging and the most expanding field of cybercrime. Since 2016, we have received more than 32,000 complaints from across the country and only 15 expert investigators to handle them.”

The committee assured its support to both the PTA and the FIA’s cybercrime wing in controlling social media.

“If we cannot deny the Holocaust, they cannot blaspheme. Host companies offering social media services in Pakistan should know that they have to heed to our cultural sensitivities or else risk losing business,” said a committee member.

Senator Mohammad Ali Saif Khan, chairman of the committee, also hinted at supporting the PTA and FIA with proposed amendments in Peca to enhance their powers to fight cybercrime.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2019