Social Media

“Amend Social Media Rules By April 2”, IHC tells the government

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) gave till April 2 to the government to make amendments to the new social media rules introduced earlier this year. It also directed the attorney general to submit a report to the court on the same date.

“A verdict on the petitions challenging the policy will be announced once we have seen the report,” the court stated.

The controversial policy – Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight, and Safeguards) Rules 2020 – was put forth by the government in November last year. It was aimed at enforcing the rules intended for social media companies on the Internet Service Providers.  According to a statement by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), “These rules provide for safeguards, process, and mechanism for exercise of powers by the Authority under the Act for removal of or blocking access to unlawful Online Content through any information system.”

The new policy also requires a national coordinator to coordinate with all stakeholders towards regulating the online systems. However, soon after its introduction, the government’s policy drew the ire of the tech sector. It was termed as “Draconian” and against the freedom of speech, whilst the digital rights foundation also expressed grave concern amongst other stakeholders.

Read More: Rules for the blocking and removal of unlawful online content set by the Federal Government

Sponsored
Ahsan Zafeer

A digital marketing professional specializing in content-based functional areas - Ahsan Zafeer is driven by a never-ending passion for developing, nurturing, and strategizing key content aspects. He writes extensively on tech, digital marketing, SEO, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies. He also serves as a digital marketing strategist and freelance consultant for globally oriented organizations. He tweets @AhsanZafeer

Share
Published by
Ahsan Zafeer

Recent Posts

Pakistan’s IT Minister Defends Internet Restrictions: Here’s All We Know!

Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Minister of State for IT and Telecom, made it clear on Thursday…

57 mins ago

PayPal Resolves Global Outage Impacting Thousands

PayPal, the global payment processing company, announced on Friday that it had successfully resolved a…

2 hours ago

7,300 Teaching Interns Hired Across Punjab

LAHORE: Punjab government colleges have completed the recruitment of 7,354 teaching interns. The Higher Education…

2 hours ago

Pakistani Engineers To Get Free AI Training from PEC

The Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) is launching a free six-week online training program on Generative…

3 hours ago

VPN Ban Could Cost Pakistan’s IT Industry $1 Billion, Warns P@SHA

The Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) has raised alarms about the severe impact of the…

16 hours ago

WhatsApp Trials Group Chat Mentions in the Latest Status Update Feature

WhatsApp is rolling out a new feature in its latest Android beta version, allowing users…

16 hours ago