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