Sweeping new regulations restricting
social media in Pakistan put freedom
of expression and the media at the heart of the struggle to counter both
civilizationalist and authoritarian aspects of an emerging new world order.
The regulations, adopted without public debate,
position US social media companies like Facebook and Twitter at the forefront
of the struggle and raise the spectre of China’s walled off Internet with its
own state-controlled social media platforms becoming the model for a host of
illiberals, authoritarians and autocrats.
The regulations, that take effect immediately, embrace
aspects of a civilizational state that defines its legal reach, if not its
borders, in terms of a civilization rather than a nation state with clearly
outlined, internationally recognized borders that determine the reach of its
law and that is defined by its population and language.
The regulations could force social media companies to
globally suppress criticism of the more onerous aspects of Pakistani law,
including constitutionally enshrined discrimination of some minorities like
Ahmadis, a sect widely viewed as heretic by mainstream Islam, and imposition of
a mandatory death sentence for blasphemy.
The new rules force social media companies to “remove, suspend or
disable access” to content posted in Pakistan or by Pakistani nationals abroad
that the government deems as failing to “take due cognizance of the religious,
cultural, ethnic and national security sensitivities of Pakistan.” The government
can also demand removal of encryption.
Social media companies are required to establish
offices in Pakistan in the next three months and install data servers by
February 2021.
The government justified the rules with the need to combat hate speech, blasphemy,
alleged fake news and online harassment of women.
The Asia Internet Coalition, a technology and internet
industry association that includes
Facebook and Twitter, warned that the regulations “jeopardize the personal safety and
privacy of citizens and undermine free expression” and would be “detrimental to Pakistan’s ambitions for
a digital economy.”
The introduction of the regulations reflects
frustration in government as well as Pakistan’s powerful military with social
media companies’ frequent refusal to honour requests to take down content.
Pakistan ranked among the top countries requesting Facebook and Twitter to remove postings.
On the assumption that Facebook, Twitter and others,
which are already banned in China, will risk being debarred in Pakistan by
refusing to comply with the new regulations, Pakistan could become a prime
country that adopts not only aspects of China’s 21st century,
Orwellian surveillance state but also its tightly controlled media.
The basis for potential Pakistani
adoption of the Chinese system was created in 2017 in plans for the China Pakistan
Economic Corridor (CPEC), a US$60
billion plus crown jewel of the Belt and Road, an infrastructure,
telecommunications and energy-driven initiative to tie Eurasia to China.
The 2017 plan identifies as risks to CPEC “Pakistani
politics, such as competing parties, religion, tribes, terrorists, and Western
intervention” as well as security. The plan appears to question the vibrancy of
a system in which competition between parties and interest groups is the name
of the game.
It envisions a full system of monitoring and
surveillance to ensure law and order in Pakistani cities. The system would
involve deployment of explosive detectors and scanners to “cover major roads,
case-prone areas and crowded places…in urban areas to conduct real-time
monitoring and 24-hour video recording.”
A national fibre optic backbone would be built for
internet traffic as well as the terrestrial distribution of broadcast media
that would cooperate with their Chinese counterparts in the “dissemination of
Chinese culture.” The plan described the backbone as a “cultural transmission
carrier” that would serve to “further enhance mutual understanding between the
two peoples and the traditional friendship between the two countries.”
Critics in China and elsewhere assert that repression of freedom of expression
contributed to China’s delayed response to the Coronavirus. China rejects the criticism with President Xi Jingping
calling for even greater control.
Pakistan’s newly promulgated regulations echo Mr. Xi’s
assertion during the Communist party’s January 7 Politburo Standing Committee
meeting that “we must strengthen public
opinion tracking and judgment, take the initiative to voice, provide positive
guidance, strengthen integration, communication and interaction, so that
positive energy will always fill the Internet space… We must control the overall public
opinion and strive to create a good
public opinion environment. It is necessary to strengthen the management and
control of online media.”
