Daily Times

The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) on Saturday said that more than 19,000 social media accounts have been taken down for what it said inciting hate and spreading terrorism in the country, a private TV channel reported.

Google, Facebook, and Twitter have taken down 19,727 accounts involved in spreading hate and terrorism, the counter-terrorism agency said. “At least 9,633 pages were spreading religious hatred, while 10,094 social media accounts were promoting terrorism and were blocked on the request of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority,” it revealed. “Five websites, spreading terrorism-related material, were also blocked,” it further said, adding that a total of 24,038 social media-related complaints were filed in 2020. The development comes after services of social media platforms Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Telegram were blocked for four hours in Pakistan on April 16. “In order to maintain public order and safety, access to certain social media applications has been restricted temporarily,” the PTA had said in its explanation regarding the suspension of services on that day. Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry had also regretted the blockage of social media sites across the country, promising that he would try his best that the measure was not taken again in the future. “I regret the three-hour suspension of social media and seek an apology over it,” Chaudhry had said in a statement at that time.