Pakistan’ ruling authorities appear clueless to counter the challenges of fake news, phony trends and anti-state propagations, proliferated on diverse social media forums. These authorities clearly look still struggling to cope up with the new challenges of digital technology. By banning digital forums and tech products, installation of geo-fencing firewall and even suspension of internet services as strategy to counter “digital terrorism” is nothing but putting the cart before the horse. That makes things more worsening for Pakistan in the post information age. Perhaps, no country today is as digitally insecure and technologically incompetent, as Pakistan.
Digital Technology Vital for Pakistan:
Last week in the 12th edition of International Defense Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS 2024) Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said that new technologies are playing a vital role “in confronting modern-day security challenges”. While Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has an ambitious plan to increase Pakistan’s IT exports from $3.2 billion to $25 billion in the next five years. Can the PM meet that export target with restrictions on digital media and tech services? Never. In fact, blanket restrictions on digital or information technology (IT) would decline our already-existing IT exports even further. Similarly, modern day security challenges can’t be countered through firewall and filtering content, that would only deepen public distrust, fuel further unrest and isolate Pakistan in the global digital economy.
On the growing digital clampdown, the government claims these measures will combat illegal content, obscenity, and “digital terrorism”. Fake news, indeed is a greater challenge around the world. Even the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres while speaking a top-level meeting of the United Nations` Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) this week said “We must rein in hate speech and disinformation spreading online. Unchecked digital platforms and Artificial Intelligence have endowed hate speech with a speed and reach unseen before.” He further added that the proliferation of deep-fakes online allowed “the impossible and the unverified to become credible in an instant . . . that ignite violence”.
Pakistan’ History of Digital Clampdown:
However, Pakistan government policy to handle the factor of fake news is senseless. There is a checkered history of over two decade of escalating digital censorship in the country by ruling authorities citing one reason after another.
In April 2003, the PTCL announced that it would be stepping up monitoring and then banning various unwanted websites (mainly pornographic sites), because they were “Anti-Islamic”. In 2008, the government banned major platform Youtube, citing “blasphemous content” as the reason. In 2010, digital censorship applied further by banning Flickr, Twitter and Wikipedia. Even platforms like Wordpress, Quora and Reddit were banned between 2015 and 2019 for “security” reasons.
In recent times, the digital clampdown has been further escalated, including the planned blocking of non-commercial VPNs and the deployment of a China-inspired “national firewall”. Of late, WhatsApp outages preventing messages, images, and videos from being sent have added to the chaos, affecting millions of users. X, Instagram and TikTok have been affecting long before. The government claims these measures will combat illegal content, obscenity, and “digital terrorism”, but its underlying motivations appear far more politically charged.
Ramifications of Censorship:
The consequences of these measures are profound. The industry rightly considers the steps to block VPN services as an “existential threat” for itself as it would result in disruptions and large financial and reputational losses for Pakistan’s IT exports and IT-enabled services, which are growing at an average annual rate of 30%. With these curbs, IT exporters now expect financial losses of tens of millions of dollars in the short term, and irreparable reputational and intangible losses in the longer run. Indeed, it will deal a big blow to one of Pakistan’s fastest-growing industries, and may result in forced closure or out-migration of IT companies and talent as well as local unemployment.
The restrictions on VPNs would make most IT companies, call centers, software houses and BPO firms lose Fortune 500 clients and others who attach maximum importance to data protection and cybersecurity. Moreover, the deployment of the firewall, lacking transparency and legal safeguards, undermines user privacy and has already slowed internet speeds due to its intrusive “in-line monitoring”.
Nothing, but Technology is the Solution:
The authorities should address the situation with “strategic foresight” rather than resorting to digital clampdown specially an unplanned blanket ban on all VPNs. There is no denying, to national security comes as the foremost and uncompromising priority. However, instead of emulating restrictive models, the government must focus on addressing IT industry and thousands of freelancers’ grievances and restoring to stakeholder engagement, transparent regulations, and targeted approaches.
Developing a framework that safeguards national security without compromising the IT sector’s operational needs is essential to achieve the PM’s new IT-enabled services’ export target.
By
Editorial, Infocus
