More than 20 Pakistani government critics on YouTube have been informed that a court order aimed at blocking their channels for alleged anti-state bias is being reviewed.
According to a court order issued on June 24 and made public this week, Pakistan’s main opposition party, its leader, and former prime minister Imran Khan are among the channels that are in danger of being blocked.
After the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency criticized the channels for “sharing highly intimidating, provocative, and derogatory contents against state institutions and officials of the state of Pakistan,” the judicial magistrate court in Islamabad filed a request for the ban.
Any ban, according to digital rights activists, would further impair Pakistan’s free speech laws, which the country’s authorities have been accused of stifling for newspapers and television, and for which there are only a few outlets for dissent.
YouTube informed 27 content creators that if they did not follow the court’s instructions, their channels could be deleted.
The popular video-sharing service said in emails this week to channel owners that “if you fail to do so, as per our local law obligations, we may comply with the request without further notice.”
A Reuters request for a comment was not immediately responded to by YouTube’s regional communications manager.
threat of a criminal prosecution
The content creators will also face criminal charges, according to Pakistan’s interior minister Talal Chaudhry.
He told local Geo News TV, “You cannot create chaos with these cellphones and social media.” He claimed that there are regulations and that they must operate in accordance with them.
Asad Toor, one of the document’s creators and one of the people who served the court order, shared the document on X. Imran Riaz Khan, Matiullah Jan, and Habib Akram are among the prominent journalists and content creators who were listed in the order, along with the names of the channels that had been blocked.
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@YouTube sent me this. I assure everyone that I will continue to cover Balochs, Missing Persons, Blasphemy gang victims, minorities, fundamental rights, rigged elections, hybrid regime, and more, unconditional role of forces. pic. twitter.com/yim0m5MfDH
Toor, who has more than 333, 000 subscribers on YouTube, claimed the move was intended to undermine the rights of people, political parties, and other dissident groups.
“It’s not my time,” I said. He told Reuters that it is about these people who live on the left of the state. I have set up a platform for these marginalized people to speak out against state oppression.
The court order “conflates dissent with criminal activity,” according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
A dangerous precedent is created by the blanket blocking of entire channels rather than dealing with specific instances of unlawful or hateful speech, according to HRCP.
The recent court ruling, which reportedly came after the Federal Investigation Agency filed a complaint, raises serious questions for HRCP. Instead of addressing specific instances of unlawful or hateful speech in…
Many independent reporters and commentators who were sympathetic to Khan, who was ousted in 2022, moved to YouTube after the government cut back on traditional media.
“It’s not just about YouTube channels getting banned or anchors getting fired,” he added. According to Zulfikar Bukhari, a spokesperson for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), it’s what they are not allowing people to learn about and the human rights violations they are trying to conceal from the world.
Khan has claimed that since his removal, the army has refuted the allegations.
You can’t suppress digital media in this day and age, said Bukhari.
Government crackdown
The latest in a line of laws and regulations from Islamabad to impose restrictions on critics and dissidents. It has repeatedly blocked X, Facebook, and TikTok social media accounts.
A new social media regulatory body with its own investigation agency and tribunals was added to the Electronic Crimes Act in January, according to Pakistan’s parliament.
Source: Aljazeera
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