ISLAMABAD – Twitter may be shutdown in Pakistan because of it’s inabilityto stop the objectionable content
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) Director General of InternetPolicy and Web Analysis, Nisar Ahmed informed the Senate Standing Committeeon Cabinet Secretariat that “while Facebook, YouTube and other social mediaplatforms complied with requests from the government to block objectionablecontent, 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 IslamabadHigh Court (IHC) directive to the regulatory body to serve Twitter with afinal notice. Furthermore, it was said that IHC had taken notice of ‘theincrease in objectionable content posted on social media websites’.
The official was quoted in the report as saying, “Twitter was not aspopular in Pakistan as Facebook, and so they had little to lose if Twitterwas blocked. However, the platform would lose business if it was shut downin the country, the senior official told the members. The court isdetermined to teach Twitter a lesson — they will lose business.”
In the past, similar attempts have been made to ban social media; Facebookwas banned in the country twice in 2008 and then again in 2010.