ISLAMABAD: The Pak­istan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has issued notices to Google Inc. and Wikipedia for “disseminating sacrilegious content”.

An official statement on Friday said: “PTA has been receiving complaints about misleading search results associated with Present Khalifa of Islam and unauthentic version of the Holy Quran uploaded by the Ahmadiyya Community on Google Play Store.

“Being a matter of very serious nature, PTA has approached Google Inc. with the directions to immediately remove the unlawful content,” the statement said.

The PTA said the platform had been issued a notice under Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguard) Rules 2020 (“Rules”) and asked to remove the sacrilegious content to avoid any legal action by the regulator.

It said: “Complaints were also received regarding hosting of caricatures of Holy Prophet (PBUH) and dissemination of misleading, wrong, deceptive and deceitful information through articles published on Wikipedia portraying Mirza Masroor Ahmad as a Muslim. After extensive communication on the matter, Wikipedia has been finally served with the notice to remove the sacrilegious content to avoid any legal action.”

In case the platforms remain non-compliant, PTA shall be constrained to initiate further action under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA) and Rules 2020.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2020