PTA blocks 1.25 million URLs for posting offensive content

Karachi: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Wednesday told the Sindh High Court (SHC) that more than 1.25 million web addresses (URLs) have been blocked for publishing objectionable content.

According to media report, the PTA submitted its response to the court in a plea against 'objectionable, immoral and illegal' content uploaded on social media platforms.

PTA told the SHC that out of 1.253522 million web addresses blocked, 988,659 were blocked for published immoral content, 90,980 for content against Islam, 84,130 for national security, 52,787 websites for spreading hatred and sectarianism, 10,363 for defamation and impersonation, 10,252 for proxy, 9,366 for other reasons and 6,985 for contempt of court.

Giving details, PTA said that among the blocked content were 139,415 Facebook links, 98,597 TikTok, 50,975 YouTube, 18,123 Instagram, 5,184 snack videos, 4,285 Bigo and Linky, 550 links of Daily Motion while 887,495 links to other platforms are included.

The regulator told the Court that it has records of around 1.34 million web addresses, of which more than 71,722 URLs are still accessible while requests to block 16,122 URLs have been rejected.

The PTA submitted its response after a petition filed by some YouTube content creators implored the authority to stop uploading of objectionable, immoral and illegal content on social media platforms.

A two-member bench of the SHC headed by Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmad Abbasi resumed hearing of the petition yesterday and a copy of the PTA's reply was provided to the petitioner's counsel.

Regarding the petition in question, the PTA asserted that it has blocked the Instagram and YouTube URLs under Section 37(1) of the Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.

The section titled 'Unlawful online content' empowers the PTA that if it deems necessary may issue instructions to remove access to a link or block a URL if it 'incite the integrity of Islam, the interests of national security, public order, morals, contempt of court or incitement to any offense under this Act’.

The PTA also questioned the continuation of the petition on the ground that the petitioners no longer had any justification to file it as they had not approached the PTA to address their concerns. The PTA said that the authority also requested the petitioners to share the exact URLs of the objectionable content but they failed to do that too.

Later, the Deputy Attorney General sought more time to include the statements of the Zonal Directors and the Director of the Cyber Crime Wing of the FIA, which the court accepted and adjourned the hearing till May 15.

Earlier in a hearing, the SHC had directed the PTA to enact relevant rules and regulations to prevent and remove objectionable content from being published on social media platforms.

Usman Farooq, counsel for the petitioners, argued that the Authority is empowered to take appropriate actions such as removal and blocking of illegal content under the Electronic Crime Act, 2016 and the Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content Rules, 2021.

However, he said that the authority is not taking immediate action against them, therefore, the Sindh High Court should issue instructions to remove the objectionable material.