Supreme Court hints at banning YouTube

[MenInG]

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s government says it will review new internet regulations that rights groups have decried as a draconian measure to limit freedom of speech and increase internet surveillance.

During a hearing on a petition challenging the legality of the Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (RBUOC) rules in the capital Islamabad on Monday, Pakistan’s Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan said civil society groups would be among those invited for consultations.

The new rules were passed in November that set broad parameters for the country’s internet regulator to censor online content.

They also required social media companies to comply with all Pakistani government censorship requests within 24 hours, and in some cases six hours.

The RBUOC rules are an expansion of the government’s powers under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), which was passed in 2016.

They allow the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA), the country’s internet regulator, to censor content deemed to be violative of “the glory of Islam”, the “integrity, security and defence of Pakistan”, “public order” or “decency and morality”.

The regulations allow the government to ban online platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube if they do not comply with takedown requests; require all platforms – including messaging apps like WhatsApp – to share users’ decrypted data with authorities without judicial oversight; and give the PTA broad powers to levy fines of up to $3.14m in case of non-compliance.

Rights groups decried the rules as being violative of citizens’ freedom of expression rights and having been passed without adequate consultations with civil society, while technology companies – including tech giants Google, Facebook and others – said the rules’ data localisation and decryption requirements would be impracticable.

“Every time civil society, social media platforms and internet companies have pushed back against the social media rules and regulations, the government has promised a more transparent and wide-ranging consultative process, and then come back with many of the same objectionable rules intact,” said journalist Amber Rahim Shamsi, who is one of the petitioners in the case at the Islamabad High Court.

“We had no choice but to go to court. The attorney general’s promise for a review is reason to hope, particularly with the court as a kind of guarantor.”

Other rights activists, however, warned that they had little faith in the government’s promises to review the rules.

“The government, in my opinion, is only doing this to take the pressure off itself, which is a result of public criticism and now court challenges,” said Farieha Aziz, co-founder of the digital rights group Bolo Bhi.

Aziz, whose organisation held consultations earlier this year on a draft version of the rules that the PTA refused to attend, accused the government of “act[ing] in bad faith throughout”.

“They could have started out by being more transparent and approachable … Their previous track record with repeated changes to the rules as per their discretion, not reflective of input, inspires little faith.”

Technology companies have also expressed “alarm” at the regulations, with the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC), a regional organisation that represents Google, Facebook, Twitter and others, saying in December that the government’s consultative processes so far had been “neither credible nor transparent”.

“Large portions of the Rules are not only unworkable for global internet platforms, they go beyond the scope of the Parent Act (PECA 2016), putting their legality into question,” said the AIC in an open letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“In particular, the data localisation requirements in the Rules will prevent Pakistani citizens from accessing a free and open internet and shut Pakistan’s digital economy off from the rest of the world.”

 

[MenInG]

The government on Tuesday formed a committee to review social media regulations introduced last year, the office of the Attorney-General for Pakistan said in a statement.

The development comes after the federal government in January informed the Islamabad High Court that it would review the regulations in an ongoing case challenging their formation.

The AGP's office said Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari would be the committee's chairperson, with MNA Barrister Maleeka Bokhari, Senator Barrister Ali Zafar, secretary IT, and chairman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority as its members.

The statement further said the committee would furnish its recommendations to Prime Minister Imran Khan within a month's time — after consultations with the petitioner, Usama Khawar — who filed the case in the IHC — and relevant stakeholders.

During the January IHC hearing, Justice Athar Minallah observed that Article 19 and 19-A of the Constitution are related to fundamental rights and that "it seems that the stakeholders were not consulted in formulating social media rules".

However, petitioner Khawar interjected and told the court that they were invited earlier for consultations, but none of their recommendations were taken into account.

On that note, Justice Minallah said that the court had appointed a judicial assistant to provide his input in the case, observing that the Pakistan Bar Council and PFUJ were important stakeholders when it came to social media regulations.

Critics cry foul over sweeping rules to control social media
The federal government's "Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight, and Safeguards) Rules, 2020" under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (PECA) invited strong criticism from internet service providers, digital rights activities, and tech giants alike when it was introduced.

Originally named the "Citizens' Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules, 2020", the rules were devised following a September 2019 IHC verdict berating the PTA for failing to frame relevant laws under Section 37 of the PECA law.

Owing to criticism from digital and human rights activists, civil society, journalists, and strong opposition from the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC), the federal government had initially formed a consultative committee to take all stakeholders on board.

On November 2, 2020, the IHC had ordered PTA to issue the new rules within 90 days. The government notified the rules on November 18, with stakeholders saying they were completely bypassed as they were being finalised by the authorities.

What are the rules?
Defining a social media company as "any person that owns or manages online systems for the provision of social media", the rules create legal liability on individuals associated with the tech company rather than holding the company responsible. They also place internet service providers (ISP) on a par with tech companies in terms of liability.

Section 4 states that any content against (i) the glory of Islam, (ii) integrity, security, and defence of Pakistan, (iii) public order, and (iv) decency and morality can be removed/ blocked. Clause 2 says the rules will prevail and take precedence over “any contrary Community Guidelines” issued by a service provider.

Section 5 states that a complaint can be filed by any person/ their guardian, ministry, division, attached department, subordinate office, provincial or local department or office, law enforcement agency or intelligence agency, or a company owned by the government.

Under Clause 5, the identity of the complainant and the reported content shall remain “confidential”.

Section 6 clause 6 makes it mandatory for social media companies and ISPs to retain information line traffic data linked to the blocked content if asked by the PTA. Section 7 gives them between six to 24 hours to abide by the authority's bidding.

Section 8 gives PTA the power to block "entire online systems or any services provided by such service providers".

Under Section 9 (1) the social media companies and ISPs have been directed to issue community guidelines. Adding on to it, clause 2 states that these guidelines "shall inform the user of the online system not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit update or share any online content that belongs to another person and to which the user does not have any right."

"This is [content that is] blasphemous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, invasive of another’s privacy, violates or affects religious, cultural, ethnical sensitive of Pakistani or harms minor in any way, impersonates another person or threatens the integrity, security, or defence of Pakistan or public order or causes incitement to any offence under PECA.”

Clause 3 asks them to deploy appropriate mechanisms to identify online content that needs to be blocked/ removed under the rules. Under clause 4, the social media companies "shall not knowingly host, display, upload, publish, transmit, update or share any online content barred under the rules".

Under clause 5(a), social media companies with over 500,000 users have to register with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority within nine months while (b) and (c) directs them to establish a registered office and appoint a focal person based in Pakistan.

The rules also ask social media companies and ISPs to establish one or more database servers in the country under clause 5(d) while clause 7 requires them to provide "decrypted readable and comprehensible information" to the Federal Investigation Agency.

Under Section 9 clause 10, the PTA is empowered to impose a penalty of up to Rs500 million on service providers and social media companies.

 

[MenInG]

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Defence was informed on Monday that the social media companies were not doing enough to work on combating cybercrime in the country.

The meeting, headed by MNA Amjad Khan, was briefed over the compliance of social media giants such as Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to curb cybercrime in liaison with the government agencies.

The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) officials lamented the lack of willingness on part of social media companies to collaborate and cooperate, saying: “Facebook does not even bother to respond to our requests.”

The secretary of interior informed the committee that 94,000 cybercrime complaints had been registered since last year. “We are looking into every complaint and will not spare anyone.

“The FIA's cybercrime wing receives 260 complaints regarding anti-government, anti-religious, fake accounts and child pornography posts on a daily basis,” the secretary informed.

Briefing the committee on the occasion, the PTA officials told the committee that under the directives of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) access to almost all pornographic websites was blocked in the country.
“The complaints regarding blasphemy cases have also declined after effective measures,” the officials assured the committee.

An FIA official informed the committee that training of the officials in dealing with such cases is also facing hurdles due to Covid-19, as training could only be conducted virtually, adding that it did not yield satisfactory result.

On the occasion, MNA Aftab Shaban Mirani said that there was a need to take concrete steps to curtail threats to country’s cybersecurity, adding that the risk of hacking of important accounts has also increased.

Member National Assembly Ramesh Kumar said that the NACTA was deviating from its terms of references (ToRs). “There are many question marks on the performance of NACTA,” Kumar said. “More than 500 unregistered religious seminaries have been set up in Thar and Badin and NACTA has done nothing about it.”

Kumar emphasised that in the light of the US withdrawal from the neighboring Afghanistan, the question of national security was gaining more urgency and more should be done to ensure it.

 

[MenInG]

In an attempt to prevent leaks of government information and documents, the federal government has decided to restrict its employees from using social media platforms.

A notification issued by the Establishment Division states that no government employee will be allowed to use any social media application — including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Twitter — without seeking permission from the government.

The reasoning behind the step is to "prevent the disclosure of government information and documents".

The statement further directed the government employees to abide by Government Servants Rules 1964 under which government employees are barred from expressing their opinions or making any statements.

Government employees have been warned of "strict action" for violating any of the instructions.

GEO

 

[Last Monetarist]

https://www.dawn.com/news/1675953/cabinet-approves-amendments-to-cybercrime-law-via-ordinance-fawad

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry confirmed to DawnNewsTV on Saturday that the federal cabinet had given the approval for a presidential ordinance to amend the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), 2016.

He said the approval for the ordinance was obtained through circulation.

The minister said under the amendments, defaming individuals on social media would be declared a punishable offence and courts would be obliged to give a verdict on cases registered under Peca within six months.

Chaudhry shared this earlier in a tweet as well, saying that the federal cabinet's approval had been sought for the amendments.

Peca was passed by the National Assembly in 2016 amid the opposition's protest.

The PML-N, which was in the government at the time, had used its majority to bulldoze the controversial bill. The opposition, meanwhile, criticised the legislation for giving the executive what it called sweeping powers that could be misused against anyone and further curb freedom of expression in the country.

The legislation stated that parody or satire-based websites and social media accounts can be proceeded against on ‘spoofing’, which makes it an offence to run a website or send information with a “counterfeit source”. It also authorised Federal Investigation Agency officers to unlock any computer, mobile phone or other device that may be required for the purpose of investigating a crime or offence, and said that defamation would be treated as a punishable offence.

In November 2020, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government framed social media laws under Peca, drawing criticism from digital rights activists, the Internet Service Providers of Pakistan and the Asia Internet Coalition, who had termed the laws draconian.

Tech companies had also threatened to discontinue their services in Pakistan if the rules were not amended, saying the regulations would make it difficult for them to continue their operations.

The rules were also challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC). During one of the hearings on the petition, the attorney general had assured the IHC that the government was ready to review the rules.

In March 2021, Prime Minister Imran Khan had constituted an inter-ministerial committee to review the controversial social media rules.

The committee had prepared the rules by August and they were passed by the Cabinet Committee on Legislative Cases on September 23.

The federal cabinet had approved the amendments to digital media rules on September 29 and the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication had notified them on November 14.

The Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules, 2021, allowed the telecom regulator in the country to block any website or platform on the directives of court and federal government or under any law.

In a statement issued at the time, IT and Telecom Minister Aminul Haque had said under the rules, social media companies would have to abide by Pakistani laws and the rights of social media users.

He had said there would be a ban on the live streaming of extremist, terrorist, hateful, obscene and violent content, and "social media companies will be liable to remove content against Pakistan's integrity and defence."

As per the rules, the propagation of "immoral and obscene content" will also be a punishable offence, Haque had said.

"No negative content concerning any individual will be uploaded," Haque had said, adding that uploading material about someone's private life would also be banned.

Other things banned under the revised rules include "content against Pakistan's cultural and moral trends" as well as content that could "destroy" the morals and harm the mental and physical development of children.

The minister had said the rules would apply to all social media outlets including Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and Google. He had added that after the issuance of the notification, the social media companies would be required to set up their offices in Pakistan "as soon as possible".

Social media companies were asked to register with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) within three months of the law coming into force and to appoint an authorised compliance officer and grievance officer based in Pakistan within the same time-frame. These officers have to address complaints within seven working days.

The rules also direct social media companies to establish an office in Pakistan, preferably located in Islamabad, upon PTA's directions "as and when feasible". Previously, the rules required the companies to set up their offices within nine months.

Internet companies had criticised the amended version as well, noting that the most problematic provisions remain unchanged in the latest draft that they say has in fact "regressed" in comparison with previous versions.

 

[Bewal Express]

Why would you worry if you arent spreading fake news at the behest of the CIA and others. Look at the FATF story last week and how these mafia frontmen worked in cahoots with the Ind media to spread it.

 

[Syed1]

Great news.... Only in Pakistan journalists can spread fake news and then defend it by using freedom of speech card. This should have been done in the first year of PTI government. Would have saved them alot of headache.