Following the approval of Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC), the federal cabinet has ratified newly drafted rules to counter the flow of illegal, blasphemous, obscene or defamatory content on social media.
According to sources, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications, after consulting concerned stakeholders, had drafted Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules, 2020, to counter the flow of illegal, blasphemous, obscene or defamatory content on social media and forwarded these new rules to CCLC for approval. Later, the CCLC approved these rules and the federal cabinet has recently granted its necessary ratification for implementation.
The rules provide that they do not curtail the freedom of speech guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan however what they aim to do is to block any online content featured in Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinstrip, Tik Tok etc which are anti Islam, anti the state and security of Pakistan. All of these terms are however quite broad.
Where as the rules prescribe punishment and fine up to PKR 500 million against the social media platforms and users not adhering to the government directives what they also do is apply the same punishment to the owner of the information system. This owner of the information system from which the online content originated could be any company or any employer in Pakistan.
All employers will need to study these rules and caution their employees on the improper use of social media content during office hours.
We think that matters will further develop on this front as time progresses.
