Micro-blogging site, Twitter has been threatened with a ban in Pakistan for its refusal to weed out anti-Pakistan objectionable content from the platform. Some days ago, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) informed Pakistan’s Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat that though other social media sites like Facebook, YouTube etc. had complied with government’s requests to block objectionable content, but Twitter had not. In its final notice to the Twitter authority, the PTA said that a blanket ban would be installed in the country if the government’s requests were not addressed within 15 days.

The Twitter ban threat has worried many in Pakistan, with many citizens pointing out that the platform has become integral to political parties and celebrities, but more importantly to many journalists and civil society activists, who use the medium to express their wide-ranging views on many issues as an expression of free speech. The platform is estimated to have approximately 3-4 million users in the country – a fraction of country’s 180 million population, yet many have protested the proposed move making it a PR nightmare for the Pakistani state. It has also worried some foreign diplomats, like the German Ambassador to Pakistan, Martin Kobler who expressed his concern through a tweet saying that a free country needs free social media.   


In the past, the Pakistani authorities (read the security establishment) have made similar attempts to block social media for posting anti-state, anti-Pakistan and anti-Armed Forces content. Facebook was banned in the country twice - in 2008 and 2010. In 2012, the PTA had blocked access to YouTube throughout the country, which continued till two years- after the video-sharing platform declined to remove the controversial movie, “Innocence of Muslims.” In 2012, the Pakistani government had banned Twitter for a brief period, because the site was allegedly promoting a Facebook competition to draw cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Yet, the outcry in the country was instantaneous with many, taking to Twitter by logging in through alternative means, created the hashtag #TwitterBan and protested angrily.


If anything that these past events show, is the futility of engaging in such internet censorship. The only impact they made was that it took Pakistan a couple of years back in terms of digital growth. Moreover, such bans demonstrate Pakistani government’s misplaced priorities: its energies should be spent in other areas such as improving internet access and educating internet users, using social media in the time of natural calamities and other disaster etc, instead of attempting to control social media platforms.


But even more importantly, this policy to control social media platforms, shows a hypocritical approach from the Pakistani state, because it has misused the same platforms for peddling propaganda against others – domestically and externally. But when the same kind of propaganda comes back to hit Pakistan, it paints itself as the victim of disinformation campaign and psychological operations.


Many accounts, receiving patronage from the Pakistani Army, have for years together propped a narrative focusing on how “democracy is a failure” in Pakistan, how India is “determined” to destroy Pakistan, how its military is both faultless and invincible and that Pakistan and Islam are under attack from internal as well as external forces, other than running malicious campaigns against several Pakistani journalists and civil society activists. One such handle - Pakistan Defence Forum, which describes itself as a one stop resource for Pakistan defence, strategic affairs, security issues, world defence and military affairs, has been repeatedly accused of peddling false propaganda through its social media accounts. In November 2017, its social media accounts – Twitter and Facebook – were suspended after it posted fake news about an Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, who had faced trial in military courts in Pakistan as well as a morphed image of an Indian student, purportedly criticising Indian government.

The Pakistani Army supported elements have also engaged in creating fake social media profiles –reported as large as 5000 – to carry out these activities. These accounts are replete with the conspiracy theories that very often make their way to the common citizenry. Further, the Pakistani secret service ISI has also come to notice for training the militant groups to operate social media, for spreading their virulent propaganda.

Thus, rather than reaping benefits from the digital technologies, the Pakistani state is known more for attempts to promote social media’s misuse and censor the internet freedom. But as the experience of the past has shown, that with zero benefit of such moves, they are only going to backfire and show Pakistan in poor light. Moreover, the new government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led by Imran Khan knows it better than any other political parties in Pakistan that the PTI has remained the greatest beneficiaries of the social media revolution and especially using Twitter while battling its political adversaries for the last few years as well as just concluded election campaign.