Pakistan govt toughens law on fake news on Twitter and Facebook

Pakistan has toughened laws to curb so-called fake news by regulating posts on social media platforms like Twitter Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook, a move seen as an attempt to crack down on journalists and opponents of the government.

President Arif Alvi approved an ordinance to amend the country’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act that allows anyone to file a complaint against a social media post. It also increased the jail term for the act from three to five years and made spreading fake news online a non-bailable offense, law minister Farogh Naseem said at a press conference Sunday. 

The changes to the law follow online misinformation about a rift between Prime Minister Imran Khan and the first lady and violent language used against former Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed on social media, according to Naseem. 

“This is simply a move to further silencing dissenting voices. It’s very serious. They have sharpened the law,” said Haroon Baluch, senior program manager at Bytes for All, a digital rights organization. “Now you will see more self-censorship.”

Separately, the authorities last week arrested Mohsin Jamil Baig, the editor of wire service Online News Agency, for comments made on a television show after a complaint made by a federal minister Murad Saeed.

“The government action is unwarranted and deplorable and undermines democratic, political and media freedoms,” Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists said in a statement. The union plans to challenge the ordinance in court and start a protest.

The decision comes days ahead of a planned protest by opposition parties to dislodge Khan from power through a series of rallies and a possible no-confidence move in parliament’s lower house. 

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