Daily Times

A lot of hue and cry has been raised on the government’s recently drafted social media rules that forced the government’s hand to send it to the information technology ministry directing it to take the stakeholders on board before implementation. “The social media rules are not aimed at silencing positive criticism and political dissent,” PM Khan has stated.

Is that the case? Or has the PM been given an incorrect understanding of the law? If everything is honkey dory why then has the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) in a letter to PM Khan written that the new rules in an effort to regulate social media will make it “extremely difficult” for digital companies to operate in Pakistan? It placed great concern on the violation of privacy law, binding the social media companies to disclose any information or data to a designated investigation agency, when sought. Without any due process. The agency does not need to go through any legal process to make the demand. Should they fail to do so, it will result in a fine of up to Rs500 million. In demanding this information, one may not have broken a ‘rule’ under the suggested regulation either. The suggested regulations are over and above the parameter of Article 19 Constitution of Pakistan 1973, besides going way beyond the scope of Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act, 1996 and the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016. Parent Acts both. Any set of rules created under the parent acts cannot award greater powers to the “National Coordinator” or any authority appointed as the new regulation suggests. Also, Section 6 of the regulation requires social media companies to furnish information that is, “decrypted, readable and comprehensible format or plain version”, clearly violating the privacy laws.

Article 19 Constitution of Pakistan allows freedom of expression while placing reasonable limitations: “interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defense of Pakistan or any part thereof, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court.” Clearly other laws cannot reduce or expand upon the mother law. The new regulations state, “shall remove, suspend or disable access to such account, online content of citizens of Pakistan residing outside its territorial boundaries and posts on online content that are involved in spreading of fake news or defamation and violates or affects the religious, cultural, ethnic, or national security sensitivities of Pakistan.” These additions are beyond the scope of the Constitutional provisions.

Placing all powers with the National Coordinator will severely cripple the growth of Pakistan’s digital economy. The government must remember content writers, small business house, entrepreneurs’ use social media for their business. These rules will only damage, severely damage these businesses

Even if there is a reason to contain some if the authorities so think (even rightly) as being on social media and posting against national interests and they feel certain elements have used social media for their propaganda, and/ or spreading fake news and so on, there already exists laws that address the issues of social media. Besides the forums themselves having a strong self-monitoring system. Pakistan already has cybercrime law, defamation law, and incitement to violence, so on and so forth. Duplication does not pay. It creates confusion.

Setting up data servers in Pakistan as demanded in suggested regulation and being answerable to local laws that are in contradiction to the international laws the social media follows (this includes YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok) is beyond the responsibilities and legal liberties of these forums.

Another angle that was raised in the AIC letter by the Managing Director Jeff Paine was that unless revoked, “these rules would severely cripple the growth of Pakistan’s digital economy.” Placing all powers with the National Coordinator will severely cripple the growth of Pakistan’s digital economy. The government must remember content writers, small business house, entrepreneurs’ use social media for their business. These rules will only damage, severely damage these businesses.

Nations that ‘regulate’ social media focus on protecting users from harmful content like child abuse, terrorism, cyber-bullying and violence. No more.

The European Union focuses on clamping down on extremist element and ensuring copyrights are not infringed. Australia’s Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material Act in 2019 was passed when Face Book showed live streaming of New Zealand shootings. As the name of Act reveals, it’s only prohibiting abhorrent content. Russia allows regulators to switch off connections in an emergency only. Britain has no such regulation yet.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg states, “Privacy rules such as the General Data Protection Regulation, which took effect in Europe last year, should be adopted elsewhere in the world.” (CBS News)

What no country has done is to follow a tunnel vision, a myopic, regressive approach towards regulating that will legally straggle the social media.

We have seen how in a very short time views about India have globally changed after the introduction of CAA and subsequent handling of protests. Pakistan must not come out on the wrong foot, swinging the bat to play a no-ball and showing an autocratic face to the world.

Further, it is very difficult to imagine these the social platforms will go beyond their legal liabilities and responsibilities globally to invest in Pakistan, an economy that does not inspire confidence at this point, and more important; violating privacy laws that we may not really have given much heed to in drafting these regulations but internationally are a big deal. Without due process giving out data(even if someone is not guilty of anything) unilateral removal of material based on subjective interpretation and above all completely ignoring privacy laws will just not sit well.

It will be a huge embarrassment to the government if ‘vetted’ by department where sent for review it’s turned down by the social platforms as being non-implementable.

The government has a plate full of issues, a regressing economy being the foremost. PM Khan will be well advised not to open a Pandora’s Box and deal instead with issues that need to be dealt with.

The writer is a lawyer, academic and political analyst. She has authored a book titled ‘A Comparative Analysis of Media & Media Laws in Pakistan.’ She can be contacted at: yasmeenali62@gmail.com and tweets at @yasmeen_9