New rules notified for social media consumers of Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has issued a notification regarding the implementation of new rules for social media consumers in the country, ARY News reported on Thursday.

Under the new social media rules, the Pakistani consumers will have complete freedom of expression, whereas, the social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Google Plus and others will be bound to follow the latest regulations.

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has notified social media rules 2021 to which the federal minister Syed Aminul Haque said that the amended regulations gave the right to freedom of expression to the Pakistani consumers under Article 19.

He said that the new rules will play an important role in the contact between Pakistani consumers and social media institutions.

Syed Aminul Haque detailed that the social media companies will have to follow Pakistan’s laws besides protecting the rights of the consumers. He said that the live streaming of extremist, terrorist, hatred, obscene and violent content will be completely banned.

He added that the social media institutions will be bound to remove such content targeting dignity and security of the country, whereas, the promotion of obscene and immoral content was criminalised.

The federal minister said that the social media institutions and service providers will devise community guidelines to give awareness to the consumers.

He added that such content that targets a specific person will not be allowed to be uploaded. The new social media rules have restricted the content against the cultural and moral trends of the content, said Haque.

The minister said that the new rules declared it mandatory for the social media institutions to establish their offices in Pakistan at the earliest besides appointing an officer for the country.