Sr. No.Date IncidentEnquiry/FIRPetition 2017 October 2019 Lahore: 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 [...]

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

The table below is based on information available in news reports, online and legal documents. It records incidents between 2017-2019, where legal action under existing laws has been taken against individuals on the basis of their social media posts, which includes issuance of summons, initiation of enquiries, registration of FIRs, detentions and arrests.