Pakistan’s federal cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft law on monitoring online activities.
The bill, which was sent to the cabinet by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom, will create an authority to monitor the growing online activities, which will be called the ‘e-Safety Authority’.
This bill was approved in the federal cabinet meeting held in Islamabad on Wednesday (July 26) chaired by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
In a statement released from the Prime Minister’s House, it was said that the Federal Cabinet has approved in principle the E-Safety Bill 2023 to prevent illegal and illegal use of information systems on the recommendation of the Ministry of Information Technology.
According to the statement, under this bill, all types of online services in Pakistan, online shopping, data provided to various companies and social networking websites to ensure the protection and unauthorized use of user data. A comprehensive framework will be created for this.
After the passage of the bill, heinous crimes like online and cyber harassment and blackmailing will be effectively curbed.
After the approval of the bill from the cabinet, this bill will be presented in the parliament and after approval from there, it will go to the Senate and the President of Pakistan and it will come into force after their approval.
To what extent is online monitoring possible with the new authority?
In response to this question, Fahm Gohar Butt, convener of Pakistan Digital Media Journalists Association, told Independent Urdu that ‘monitoring or registration of modern mediums like digital media is the authority of the state, but under the guise of PEMRA, like electronic media. Trying to control digital media in style will cause harm to the government and citizens.’
He said: ‘It is true that digital media especially Social media The government should come up with a strategy to control the campaign of discrediting the opposition through fabrications, false rumors and propaganda on the platforms for the past few years, but there is no need to create a new authority. Rather, it can be controlled if action is taken under the existing laws related to defamation.’
According to Faheem Gohar Butt: ‘Our problem is not to stop lies or fake news on digital media, but to use favorite news for our own benefit and to stop opponents. Earlier, PTI tried to make such laws to suppress the anti-government voices in its government and now the PDM government is taking this step to suppress the voices of its opponents.
Independent Urdu also spoke to renowned YouTuber Moazzam Fakhr on this issue, who said: ‘Monitoring of digital media is necessary to prevent false propaganda or turbans, but if it is tried to influence it. So people who earn millions of dollars through digital media and bring to Pakistan and it becomes billions of dollars annually, may also decrease.’
According to Moazzam: ‘The main reason for this is that most digital platforms provide news and information more freely than local media, so people watch them with more interest. Who will see if controlled information will also come there, so people will create accounts from other countries and run their platforms and that’s where the money will come.’
How much difference will registration with the new authority make?
Nabil Rasheed, who runs a digital marketing company, says that ‘digital platforms are currently doing business worth billions of rupees in the country and the government’s initiative to record it is good, but first ensure the transparency of the system and the registration process. It should be kept online and transparent, but the conditions should be relaxed so that people can register easily.’
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According to Nabil: ‘Everyone knows how difficult it is to get minor work done in government institutions. The way digital platforms are functioning, it is considered that best practices should be adopted for them so that they can register themselves easily and their work is not affected. People fear that various taxes are levied after registration, as lakhs of people shy away from becoming filers in the FBR.’
The Federal Cabinet has also approved in principle the ‘Personal Data Protection Bill 2023’ on the recommendation of the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication.
According to the official announcement, ‘Under this bill, the government will ensure the security of the user’s personal information/data by various organizations and companies and without their permission, any company, individual or government organization will not share the user’s information/data without their permission. will ban the giving of data.’
The statement said that ‘National Commission for Personal Data Protection ‘NCPDP’ will be established under the law to protect the private information/data of users and redressal of complaints, which will be a civil court. will hold status.’
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