ISLAMABAD – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube refuse mutual legal assistancetreaty with Pakistan, media report has revealed.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has approached Facebook,Twitter, YouTube, and other networking platforms to sign a Mutual LegalAssistance Treaty but hasn’t had any success.
None of the tech giants have shown any signs of signing the agreement inthe near future, PTA officials briefed the National Assembly StandingCommittee on Information Technology.
Under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, PTA intends to fast-track theprocess of removing unlawful, blasphemous content published on social mediaplatforms. PTA also seeks to obtain information of users involved inspreading fake news, harassing individuals, and defaming the state. Thetelecom regulator aims to get fake social media accounts blocked as well.
Not only are the tech giants reluctant to enter any mutual assistancetreaty with PTA, but they have also responded to just 50% of the complaintslodged by the telecom regulator.
PTA had sent 4,226 complaints to different social networking companies.However, tech companies responded to only 2,362.
Read Top Stories
Out of 2,945 complaints registered by PTA with Facebook, the tech companyresponded to 1,655. Instagram resolved 360 complaints out of 591 whileWhatsApp responded to 132 out of 196.
Meanwhile, OLX responded to 247 complaints out of 256, Loconto solved 67complaints out 77, and VChat resolved 1 out of the three complaints sent byPTA.
Both Twitter and YouTube did not bother to reply to the 89 and 35complaints sent to them respectively. Moreover, DailyMotion did not respondto 6 complaints, LinkedIn to 5, Snapchat to 13, Skype to 3 and IMO to 7.
