Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Amin-ul-Haque on Friday said that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked 6,418 Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) involved in spreading fake news.
In a written reply to the question of Senator Bahramand Khan Tangi, he said the URLs had been blocked following the complaints lodged b stakeholders including organizations, general public and proactive search pertaining to spreading of fake news on Social Media.
He said PTA immediately received complaints, however, Social Media
platforms usually do not entertain requests of regulators with reference to removal of defamatory content and encourage the users to directly report such issues. Besides, they, prefer direct communication with the complainants in order to seek relevant clarification (if any) for the purpose of effective resolution of the matter.
Moreover, Social Media platforms including Facebook and Twitter have been directed to put in place proper strict mechanism so that the users are not able to easily create accounts until certain verifications/requirements are fulfilled by the account creator.—APP
