Islamabad (Staff Report): Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday said that a mechanism has been prepared to launch a crackdown against those spreading hate speech on social media.
Addressing an event in Islamabad, the minister said that the government has to a great extent controlled hate speech on formal media.
“I am thankful for the cooperation of the formal media on this. I am happy to tell you that in the next step we have prepared a mechanism in which we will be able to control hate speech on social media”, Fawad Chaudhry said.
He said that a working group of security agencies including the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) determined the capability of fake accounts spreading hate speech on social media.
The information minister said that the government was set to introduce a new media regulatory body, Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority, which would be a one window operation to enforce regulations for the digital, print and electronic media. He added that there was a need to build a capacity to monitor social media.
Fawad Chaudhry said that arrests had been made this week regarding use of social media to give fatwas and spreading of their extremist narrative.
Chaudhry said that there would be strict crackdown against those spreading hate speech in the coming weeks.
He said that propagation of extremist narrative will not be allowed on social media.
Fawad emphasized that the government wanted dialogue but this could not happen if the other did not allow it.
In January, the information minister had announced that a draft for the new Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority to oversee print, electronic and social media had been finalized.
