PTA strongly responds against the prejudiced impression created from AIC
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Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has dispelled the prejudiced impression created by the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) and its members regarding the “Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight, and Safeguards), Rules 2020.”
PTA spokesperson said that the rules titled “The Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight, and Safeguards), Rules 2020” have been notified by the Federal Government vide notification dated November 27, 2020. These rules have been framed as a statutory requirement under Section 37 (2) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA). ------------------------------
ing, the Committee and the AIC exchanged views, and the AIC submitted a response regarding the consultation framework. AIC members Facebook, Google, and Twitter, were also approached for consultation individually, as desired by the AIC. Google and Facebook participated in the consultation process on June 26 and 29, 2020, respectively.
“Hence, AIC’s stance that meaningful consultation was not carried out is misleading and against the facts,” said PTA.
“Since timelines were to be followed by the Committee for finalization of its report based on the Honourable Islamabad High Court order dated 12-09-2019 and Federal Government directions vide Consultation Committee notification dated February 28, 2020, the process could not be kept open-ended and prolonged indefinitely,” it added.
