ISLAMABAD – The government of Pakistan has been advised to ban all socialmedia services such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube duringoffice hours after the excessive use by government employees.
The standing committee of the National Assembly, chaired by Ali Khan Jadoonwas briefed by the Information Technology Board. IT Board advised thegovernment to build a separate entity to tackle the fake news on socialmedia.
Concern raised when a fake government notification got leaked which sparkedthe anger in the power sector. IT Board urged the government to take actionagainst such threats. NITB official said,
*“We are taking steps to curb fake news on social media. We have taken thePress Information Department into confidence, we have tried to ensure thatthere is social media news verification,”*
IT Board informed the committee that government employees not just onlyspend most of the time on social media but also conduct part-time businesson them.
The committee was also told that the IT Board is working with the governmentto build its own application as an alternative for WhatsApplink.The decision to build the application was finalized in a recent cabinetmeeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan. It is expectedthat the application will be called the “Govt App”.
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The decision of banning WhatsApp and other social media networks is alsolinked with recent hacker’s attacks on the WhatsApp of some governmentofficials.
The government of Pakistan is very concerned therefore it has asked the ITdivision to pick up the pace in the making of locally owned messagingservice to avoid a data breach.
In the meantime, the government has asked all the officials to avoidsharing classified information through WhatsApp, download the latestversion of WhatsApp or replace their smartphones.
