Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry Wednesday revealed that the federal government had decided to launch a ‘comprehensive crackdown’ on hate speech on social media across country.
Addressing the closing ceremony of two-day workshop on ‘Strategic Communication and Media Engagement in Crisis Situation’, the minister announced that the government has formed a working group comprising representatives of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and other security agencies to keep a check on hate speech on all social media platforms. “There must never be any tolerance for hate speech. We will act indiscriminately against individuals who propagate any sort of extremist views,” he added.
Fawad said the government has largely overcome the hate speech on formal media thanks to the cooperation of media houses, adding that now steps were being taken to check hate content on social media. He said recently some arrests were made for promoting hate speech against the national institutions on social media and added that crackdown would be carried out to control extremist narrative on social media in days ahead.
The minister said the government was set to constitute Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority (PMRA) to tackle the issues of both formal and social media under one roof including hate speech and spread of extremist narrative. He said that extremism breeds the terrorism while dialogue and discussion can solve problems. Freedom of expression is a fundamental right but not without restrictions under the law of the land, he added.
The minister said modern media comes with its own set of challenges, adding that the pace at which informal digital media is taking over the formal media makes it ‘essential’ for the government to regulate it. Explaining that the main efforts would be to uproot threats of violence, the minister said the move would hopefully encourage healthy debates that are not emotionally fueled. “This week we have made some important arrests on the basis that they used social media to issue fatwas and advance their extremist narratives and threats. In the next few weeks, we will launch a strict crackdown. State will not allow extremists to dictate their narrative by use of force,” he said.
“We will monitor social media activity and work to eliminate fake accounts. People who violate Pakistan’s cyber laws will be prosecuted. We want to encourage discourse and debate in society but this is not possible when you have people threatening each other’s lives over differences of opinion,” he said. “The State wants dialogue but it cannot happen if others do not let you do that,” he said. “If you are told that ‘my opinion is final and if you disagree I will shoot you or you should be hanged for saying this’ then you are using the State’s powers. Only the State has the power to use force or violence. Any individual cannot be allowed to the same,” the minister asserted.
Fawad said the government wanted to build a national and international counter narrative against extremism. Mentioning Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, the minister claimed that it provides a massive opportunity to combat extremism. Pakistan has managed to rid itself from an ‘irregular conflict’ which he said is more complicated than ‘regular conflicts’ where at least the enemy’s identity is clear.
“After a heavy loss of lives, we managed to leave terror behind,” he said, adding, “The next phase is to consolidate on this and not allow people to exhibit hatred because the first stage of this process is extremism and the next is terrorism.” He said dialogue is the basic principle of every democratic society, adding that the people have complete right to stick to their opinions and express themselves. “However, people do not have the right to curb others’ freedom. The extent of my freedom ends where others’ begin,” he maintained.
Fawad said Pakistan, which used to be a tolerant nation, was trapped in an irregular and prolonged conflict in the neighborhood in 1980 which eventually flourished the scourge of terrorism and extremism here. He said Pakistan is a resilient nation which rendered monumental sacrifices against terrorism and extremism and successfully overcome the menace.
The minister said that Islam was spread through Sufis in the sub-continent and not through the sword which was itself manifestation of the fact that there was no concept of extremism and terrorism in our religion. The history of endurance and tolerance of the people of the sub-continent, especially the Indus civilization, is very old, he remarked.
He said today the entire world is facing a serious challenge of extremism and Pakistan also remains a victim of it. In India, extremism did increase after Modi government came to power while various other communities of the world have also suffered from extremism in some way, he added.
Fawad said the implementation of rules was the responsibility of the state and Imran Khan’s government was fully committed to ensuring the enforcement of law from the very first day. No one will be allowed to promote hatred in country now, he asserted.
Published in Daily Times, February 14th 2019.
