Exterior view of a Googleplex building, the corporate headquarters complex of Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc. ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has invited Google, Facebook, and other technology companies to come to Pakistan to open their offices. Speaking in a BBC’s ‘Hard Talk’ programme, he said that he had huge respect for Google, Facebook, and other technology companies. “I want them to come to Pakistan to open their offices,” he said. “We want to do business with technology companies, and we acknowledge their contribution for the world,” he said, and rejected impression that laws had been passed in Pakistan to curb social media freedom. “Hate speech is a universally-recognized fact that has to be curbed, all the states and organizations are duty-bound not to allow hate speeches,” he added. INTERESTING REPORT In ‘Year in Search’ report for 2020, Google indicated that the most popular topics and queries from citizens were of the topics that saw the most traction on the Alphabet Inc-owned search giant included kids’ home activities, TV shows dubbed in Urdu, how to adopt a pet, and resources for mental health support. In addition, people were curious about how to ramp up charity work and how they could introduce more reusable products in their lives, the latter a likely impact of a global conversation surrounding the climate emergency. Not only that, the citizens were also interested in gender equality as well.