Daily Times

It is an irony that could only happen in Pakistan. On the one hand, the country is home to a new political set-up that successfully hit much of the campaign trail virtually; effectively mobilising large portions of the citizenry through the skilful use of social media. And on the other, micro-blogging site Twitter faces threats of being shut down unless it succumbs to demands to heavily filter its content.

The man at the heart of the fracas is the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui. Who has, since last year been waging a crusade against blasphemous material on social media. Yet the right honourable judge was good enough to put on hold any potential punitive action against Twitter for non-compliance with numerous Pakistani requests to remove such objectionable content. So as not to interrupt election canvassing. But now that the citizenry has fulfilled its democratic right — it risks being denied access to the free flow of information. In just under two weeks; unless Twitter plays ball.

If this were to happen, it would represent a considerable regression. After all, blasphemy is not the only issue under the spotlight. The realm of what constitutes objectionable material extends to criticising state institutions; particularly the military establishment. The citizenry is already only too familiar with the consequences of ‘dissent’; which has seen journalists and civil society activists picked up or worse. And now, when a micro-blogging site fails to pull the plug on certain content — it will be ordinary Internet users who pay the price.

For a nation fixated on having the global spotlight showcase its soft face, such a move would be a gross misstep. This is to say nothing of creating a further digital apartheid of sorts whereby those with the means and know-how may circumvent such shut-downs. Which, of course, is what happened in the past when both Facebook and YouTube were banned. And to think that the Internet is supposed to level the playing field.

And while it is unlikely that the new government and its allies will tolerate such shenanigans — a way forward must be found in order to put an end to this recurring problem. Indeed, the biggest players in the social media market, including Twitter, have already introduced tentative safeguards to weed out both fake news and accounts. The rest becomes a question of freedom of expression. That being said, where these companies as well as the Pakistani authorities should not hold back is when it comes to rape threats and other instances of violent misogyny. Not to mention those accounts managed by known militant groups. And on both fronts, responsibility does not begin and end with Twitter. But rather with the state itself.  *

Published in Daily Times, August 19^th 2018.