On November 18, 2020, Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Protection, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules, 2020, as published in the Extraordinary Gazette, were uploaded to the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom’s (MOITT) website, approved and in effect since October 20, 2020. Below is a comparison with the earlier version of the Rules that […]

Sr. No.Date IncidentEnquiry/FIRPetition 2017 October 2019Lahore: Sajid Ali was awarded five-year rigorous imprisonment for posting blasphemous material on social media. He was charged under Section 11 of PECA and section 298-A PPC for allegedly posting “sacrilegious, blasphemous and derogatory material against Hazrat Umar (R.A)” on Facebook in 2017. The matter was reported to police of [...]

Month/Year Government Announcements Initiate Crackdown and Regulate Social MediaDisappearances/Summons/Detentions/FIRs/Arrests Based on/Linked to Social Media PostsContent Restriction: Website Blocking, Requests to Companies, Twitter Notices Petitions Challenging PTA and FIA Action, and PECA January 2017Jan 25: Khabaristan Times, a satirical website, blocked. According to Facebook’s Transparency Report for July-Dec 2016, Pakistan made 1,002 requests to Facebook for [...]

Government Announcements to Crackdown and Regulate Social Media