FIA starts action against hate-mongering websites

LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency under the National Action Plan (NAP) has initiated action against more than 100 websites spreading anti-Islam, anti-Pakistan, blasphemous and sectarian content inside Pakistan, The News has learnt.
The FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing has unearthed over 100 such sites and details of these sites have been shared with Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) - the regulating authority of websites and the telecommunication sector of Pakistan - for their immediate blockage. The FIA has also instructed the PTA to block the fan pages or other pages on social networking websites such as Twitter, Facebook and others spreading blasphemous content.
Ironically, even the most notorious fan page of Charlie Hebdo — a French weekly magazine — has not been blocked in Pakistan as yet. Earlier, the blocking of popular video website Youtube continued in Pakistan which was sparked over a controversy on blasphemous content.
A senior FIA official, who wished not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told The News on Wednesday that under the 20-point National Action Plan, the government has already announced to take action against the abuse of Internet and social media for terrorism, countering hate speech and extremist material, taking effective steps against religious persecution and dealing firmly with sectarian terrorists.
Confirming the recent developments, the official said the FIA has also asked the PTA to take up the matter of hate speech, blasphemous material and anti-Islam content with Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites to get the issue addressed as early as possible.
It has also asked the PTA to provide details of webmasters of these websites or their representatives in Pakistan, he added.
Although, a spokesman of PTA, Khurram Mehran, did not respond despite repeated efforts made on his cell phone number Wednesday, a senior PTA official told this correspondent that the authority would act as per the law on the FIA request for blocking websites.