Twitter fear danger of shutdown in Pakistan
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ISLAMABAD - Twitter may be shutdown in Pakistan because of it's inability to stop the objectionable content
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) Director General of Internet Policy and Web Analysis, Nisar Ahmed informed the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat that “while Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms complied with requests from the government to block objectionable content, Twitter did not oblige”.
The committee met for a briefing on penalties fixed by the PTA against ‘derogatory’ comments spreading through social media targeting the state, its citizens and its institutions.
It was further reported that the committee was informed about Islamabad High Court (IHC) directive to the regulatory body to serve Twitter with a final notice. Furthermore, it was said that IHC had taken notice of ‘the increase in objectionable content posted on social media websites’.
The official was quoted in the report as saying, “Twitter was not as popular in Pakistan as Facebook, and so they had little to lose if Twitter was blocked. However, the platform would lose business if it was shut down in the country, the senior official told the members. The court is determined to teach Twitter a lesson — they will lose business.”
In the past, similar attempts have been made to ban social media; Facebook was banned in the country twice in 2008 and then again in 2010.