Online content curbs and the paradox of democracy in Pakistan
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Pakistan has just notified a new set of regulations governing online free speech and Internet content for producers and social media platforms. If implemented as articulated and intended, these rules will bring into effect a new level of hush on freedom of expression and access to information.
In a country that is a democracy and whose constitution guarantees both free speech and access to information, why have further measures to curb expression? Why does Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has over 11 million followers on Twitter, not want his followers talking back to him? Why does a professed democrat want just a monologue and no dialogue?
The current online curbs cannot be solely blamed on Khan-- his predecessors contributed to varying degrees-- but his government has exhibited a proclivity for being intensely intolerant of dissent.
Latest data shows dozens of journalists and other information practitioners charged under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) by the incumbent government for being critical of its underperformance. The new regulations will serve as guidelines for implementation of the PECA law, which could criminalize even legitimate dissent as hate speech.
The regulations that have evoked near universal opposition in Pakistan, make the criticism of not just public office holders but also of government officers culpable to prosecution, which makes them exceed in the imposition of punishment to even some pre-existing laws on telecom and terrorism that allow at least some due process. The new regulations dispense with these protections.
Not just individuals, but any platforms such as social media giants carrying the comments and opinions of citizens have been declared equally culpable for showcasing alleged dissent, with fines imposed of up to Rs500 million by the telecom regulator. They have also been mandated to shift their data centers to Pakistan and make them accessible to local authorities for censorship.
No wonder the Asia Internet Coalition, which groups together such Big Tech giants such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and Yahoo, among several others, issued a terse statement in response to these regulations and threatened to exit Pakistan if they were not withdrawn.
The worst hit will be the citizens of Pakistan and professionals in media who have been contending with shrinking civic space which has led to an increasing disconnect between the citizen and state.
Adnan Rehmat
The worst hit will be the citizens of Pakistan and professionals in media who have been contending with shrinking civic space which has led to an increasing disconnect between the citizen and state.
This gave rise in recent years to a lively online cyberspace in Pakistan where the country’s socio-political pluralisms, ignored by legacy media and hounded by the ruling elite, found some support.
But the new regulations will beat the professional life out of independent media online. They will intimidate audiences who have been shifting online for news and information that they no longer adequately get from legacy media.
Partly as a result of the regulations, over a dozen of Pakistan’s most vibrant independent online journalism platforms, that are not extensions of legacy media, recently banded together into an association to challenge and resist the state’s curbs on national dialogues initiated by grassroots communities.
The Pakistani state must realize there is a cognitive dissonance here-- of being both democratic and authoritarian. How can the citizen-state trust be sustained in the absence of adequate freedoms of information and expression?
The country must look to the online sphere as an economic domain that unleashes a spirit of entrepreneurship-- which in turn expands into the country’s digital economy.
Restricting freedom of expression and access to information online only alienates the populace and relegates the country on the sidelines of global digital growth.
*Adnan Rehmat is a Pakistan-based journalist, researcher and analyst with interests in politics, media, development and science.
Twitter: @adnanrehmat1
