ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has revealed that it received more than 3,000 complaints regarding blasphemous content on social media sites.
An official of the authority told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication that most of the websites have been blocked while web pages of social media containing such contents were being scrutinized by the respective social media management on the request of the Pakistan government.
He said overall 1,660 websites were found to be containing blasphemous content. The NA body met under the chairmanship of Captain (r) Muhammad Safdar and was attended by MNAs MeharIshtiaq Ahmad, FarhanaQamar, Zahra WadoodFatemi, ShaziaMarri, Engineer Dawar Khan Kundi, Syed Ali RazaAbidi and ShahjehanMuneerMangrio.
The committe was informed that a Facebook delegation will visit Pakistan next month to discuss the issue of blasphemous content on social networking site. The chairman asked the ministry to also arrange a meeting of the committee with the delegation of Facebook when it arrives here.
An official of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told the committee that since the approval of Cyber Crime Bill in March, 2017, the agency has apprehended four suspects involved in posting blasphemous contents on websites.
The committee unanimously showed serious concerns over the issue of blasphemous and objectionable material posted on social media and asked the ministry, PTA and FIA representatives about the actions taken till date and the progress to mitigate the issues relating to this important subject.
The committee appreciated the efforts being undertaken so far by the ministry, PTA, FIA and other agencies to tackle the issue.
