Government May Shut Down Social Media Platforms Without Offices in Pakistan

For a long time now, the Pakistani government has been urging international social media companies to open their offices in the country. However, till now, no social media company has complied with the government’s demand. In this regard, a local media channel has said that the government is reportedly working on a social media regulation policy. The new policy would ban any social media platform in the country unless it had an official presence within Pakistan.

It is pertinent to mention here that the government has already banned X in Pakistan. However, the prime minister, federal ministers, provincial ministries, and the general public continue to use the microblogging platform through proxies.

Besides, the government has already proposed amendments to the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016. It has also constituted a committee that will review PECA and seek political consensus by taking all stakeholders on board.

The committee is chaired by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah and includes Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Minister of State for Information Technology Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar, Information and Broadcasting Minister Attaullah Tarar, Senator Sherry Rehman, Nawabzada Khalid Magsi, and Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan.