Observer Report
Islamabad
The federal cabinet on Wednesday approved a new set of rules and regulations through which social media platforms will be required to register and open offices in Pakistan, as proponents of internet freedoms worry that the legal document will be used to keep social media companies in check.
Sources said the rules and regulations have been included in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 and that senior officials in the Ministry of Information Technology confirmed that the cabinet has given the green light to the legal document.
IT ministry’s secretary Shoaib Siddiqui confirmed to a news channel that the federal cabinet had amended the rules and regulations after which the law does not require to be presented before the parliament for approval.
According to the law, all global social media platforms and companies will have to register in Pakistan within three months and open offices in Islamabad within the same timeframe.
The law requires the companies and platforms providing social media services to appoint a representative in Pakistan who will deal with a National Coordination Authority. The authority will be responsible for regulating social media companies.
It requires social media companies to make data servers in Pakistan within one year. The law makes it compulsory for social media companies to provide data of accounts found guilty of targeting state institutions, spreading fake news and hate speech, causing harassment, issuing statements that harm national security or uploading blasphemous content, to intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
Authorities will take action against Pakistanis found guilty of targeting state institutions within Pakistan and abroad on social media. The law will also help LEAs get access to data of certain accounts found involved in suspicious activities.
