By National News Desk
Islamabad: On Friday, Pakistan’s regulators condemned Internet giants Google and Wikipedia for “disseminating sacrilegious content.”
The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) called for the immediate removal of “unlawful content” from Google. The regulators pointed to pages that refer to the religious leader Mirza Masroor Ahmad as the new “Khalifa” or leader of Islam, thus contradicting the dominant religious beliefs in the region. They also mentioned the “unauthentic version of the Holy Quran” on the Google Play Store.
“Complaints were also received regarding hosting of caricatures of Holy Prophet (PBUH) and dissemination of misleading, wrong, deceptive and deceitful information through articles published on Wikipedia portraying Mirza Masroor Ahmad as a Muslim,” the PTA said in a statement published on its official Twitter handle.
Mirza Masroor Ahmad is honored as a Khalifa by members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, a persecuted minority in Pakistan.
“In case the platforms remain non-compliant, PTA shall be constrained to initiate further action under Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA) and Rules 2020,” the Pakistani regulator added.
Clampdown on TikTok, Tinder, Grindr
In recent months, the government of Pakistan has sought to exercise greater control over the digital sphere by approving a draft policy which critics say opens the door to mass censorship.
The move triggered a backlash from rights groups and tech companies, with activists saying that authorities are seeking to control the digital space to prevent criticism against the government and Pakistan’s powerful military.
In October of this year, Pakistan prohibited TikTok’s video-sharing site from inappropriate content. Weeks earlier, the country had blocked a range of dating apps, including Tinder and Grindr, in an effort to censor “immoral” and “indecent” content.