Shireen Mazari, Facebook members discuss fake news, human rights issues

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr. Shireen Mazari met a Facebook delegation on Monday and discussed the issue of fake news.

The visiting team includes Mr. Simon Milner, VP of APAC Public Policy for Facebook, accompanied by Mr. Sarim Aziz, Head of Public Policy for Facebook Pakistan and Ms. Sehar Tariq, Public Policy Manager for Facebook Pakistan and Digital Media specialist Mr. Imran Ghazali.

Dr. Mazari told the Facebook team about various initiatives taken by the ministry to address Human Rights issues.

She told the team that the ministry has a 24/7 helpline that caters to human rights reports from across Pakistan and provides free legal counselling to the Pakistani citizens.

Furthermore, Dr. Shireen Mazari said that new technology plays a very important role in today’s world and government is taking steps to build the capacity of teams to that these online tools can be used to quickly resolve the citizens problems.

She also mentioned the Women Inheritance Rights Law, Transgender rights law, Zainab Alert Act, 2018 and other awareness campaigns the ministry is working on to address human rights issues.

Mr. Milner offered full support to the ministry’s initiatives and said Facebook will help the government of Pakistan, civil society and NGOs in Pakistan raise awareness about human rights issues.

The Facebook outlined the work it has undertaken to fight false news through a combination of technology, including removing fake accounts, partnering with fact-checkers, and promoting news literacy in Pakistan.