Firewall can’t stop social media propaganda: PTA

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman Major General (retd) Hafeezur Rehman said on Wednesday that his department is working on the Internet firewall in the country on the direction of the government.

In the meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) today, Hafeezur Rehman said that the federal government has ordered the installation of firewalls regarding the disruption of the Internet in the country, difficulties in accessing social networking websites and the installation of firewalls. It has been given, the PTA is following it and we are running the firewall.’

He further said that ‘propaganda on social media cannot be stopped by a firewall.’

He said that how many people’s memes are running on social media right now. Prime Minister’s, judges’, every servant’s behavior. If there was so much management, they would have closed it. Can you?’

‘Internet slowness due to cable failure’

He in the country Internet The cause of the slowdown was attributed to the failure of the submarine cable.

Briefing the committee, he said that 7.5 terabytes of internet data is transmitted through one underwater cable and there are seven such cables in Pakistan, one of which is damaged. ‘Using a VPN in such a situation caused the internet to go down.’

“The submarine consortium has informed that the internet is affected due to a fault in the submarine cable.” He said that this cable will be fixed by August 27.

Committee member and leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Barrister Gohar Khan asked the question ‘Is the submarine cable in other countries in the world also affected or only Pakistan’s cable is affected?’ To this, Hafeezur Rehman replied that Pakistan’s submarine cable is affected.

Meanwhile, the committee members asked the question, ‘Is the use of VPN illegal?’ Chairman PTA expressed ignorance of the law on this and called the concerned officer.

Chairman PTA said that the telecom sector suffered a loss of Rs 30 crore in six days. “We formed a committee of the CEOs of all the companies, including Jazz and Zong, which concluded that there was no malpractice or problem at any level.”

Hafeezur Rahman while talking about the issue of firewall said that every country has installed its own system. ‘When the government says something should not be on the internet, it is done. The PTA takes instructions from the federal government, the Ministry of Home Affairs or the court.

He said, ‘If any video comes on social media, it is compared according to the law and then instructions are given to remove it. 97,000 websites that contain pornography and offensive content have been blocked.

He disclosed that ‘web management system was in place since 2006 while firewall system was adopted in March 2019. In 2019, an upgrade of the system, formerly called WMS, was launched, which was renamed the National Firewall System in March 2019.

Continuing, he said that this system is sometimes given a firewall or some other name, in our case it is called a web management system.

He said that ‘Fire wall or internet monitoring system, no new system is coming. This is a pre-existing system being upgraded.

‘PTA is upgrading the web management system, whatever you call it. VPNs are not blocked in the world, it affects businesses. This vp It is not being closed, it has only been asked to register.

‘Web Management System was introduced during PTI regime’

Committee member and PTI leader Umar Ayub Khan asked why this system was needed now. If a web management system or firewall system affects social media accounts and content, you may block them, but what are the implications? Does the intelligence agency have the ability to intervene and block things on its own?

Chairman PTA said ‘You are misinterpreting my words. This system was brought in during your regime.’

On this, Umar Ayub asked ‘Do you have the minutes of the cabinet?’ On this, Chairman PTA said, ‘They will not be with me, they will be with the Ministry of IT. A letter came out in October 2020 that it should be implemented, you ask the government and we will follow the order I get.

This section contains related reference points (Related Nodes field).

Hafeezur Rehman added that PTA told Sindh High Court and Islamabad High Court that X (formerly Twitter) has been blocked on the instructions of the Ministry of Interior.

Later, the Standing Committee asked for an estimate of the losses in the IT sector and directed the ‘Member IT, Ministry of IT to submit a complete estimate of the losses in the next meeting.

During the meeting, Junaid Imam, a member of the IT Ministry, while briefing the committee, said that most of the IT sector is undocumented, including freelancers.

According to Hafeezur Rahman, Pica is clear that we manage social media, the Pica Act gives us the authority to remove or block content.

Explaining about the firewall, he revealed, ‘We are running the firewall, the federal government has ordered that the firewall be installed and the PTA is implementing it. The federal government can give a complete explanation about the firewall.

Speaking to Independent Urdu after the meeting, he said, ‘There is nothing new in Pakistan. Web management systems have been around for a long time.

It is written in the constitution that how will you block social media? When there is an order from the federal government or the court related to social media (to block social media), there is a system for it, its name is web management system. Changing the name doesn’t mean something new is coming.’

To the question ‘When was the firewall, which you call a web management system, approved?’ But he said it was launched in the 90s while its upgrade was approved in March 2019, upgrading the system is normal.