Pakistan seeks YouTube ban on 27 opposition and journalist channels
The channels at risk of being blocked in Pakistan include those belonging to the main opposition party, its leader and jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, as well as several journalists critical of the government, according to a court order dated June 24 and circulated this week.
The judicial magistrate court in Islamabad said it was seeking the ban after the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency criticised the channels in a June 2 report for 'sharing highly intimidating, provocative and derogatory contents against state institutions and officials of the state of Pakistan'.
Digital rights campaigners say that any ban would further undermine free speech in Pakistan, where the authorities are accused of stifling newspapers and television, and social media is seen as one of the few outlets for dissent.YouTube told 27 content creators that their channels could be taken down if they did not comply with the court orders.
'If you fail to do so, as per our local law obligations, we may comply with the request without further notice,' the popular video-sharing platform said in emails this week to the channel owners.
YouTube's regional communications manager did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for a comment.
Pakistan's State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry said the content creators would also face criminal charges.
'You cannot use these cellphones and the social media to create chaos,' he told local Geo News TV. 'There are laws to regulate, and they will have to work under these laws,' he said.
One of the creators, Asad Toor, who was among those served the court order, shared the document on X. The order listed the names of the blocked channels, including those run by prominent journalists and content creators such as Imran Riaz Khan, Matiullah Jan, and Habib Akram.
Toor, who has more than 333,000 YouTube subscribers, said the move was aimed at undermining fundamental and constitutional rights of the people, political parties and other dissident groups.
'It is not about me. It is about these people who are on the left side of the state,' he told Reuters. 'I have dedicated my platform for these underdogs who have no place to go to and raise their voices against the state oppression.'
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) expressed concern about the court order, saying the blanket ban 'conflates dissent with criminal activity'.
'The wholesale blocking of entire channels—rather than addressing specific instances of unlawful or hateful speech — sets a dangerous precedent,' HRCP said in a statement.
After the government clamped down on traditional media, many independent reporters migrated to YouTube, as did journalists and commentators sympathetic to Khan, who was removed from office in 2022.
'It's not only about anchors getting fired or YouTube channels getting banned. It's what they are not allowing to be told and the human rights abuse they are trying to hide from the world,' said Zulfikar Bukhari, a spokesperson for Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
Khan has said his party has faced a military-backed crackdown since his removal, a charge the army denies.
'In this day and age, you can't suppress digital media,' said Bukhari.
The order is the latest in a series of laws and regulations from Islamabad that have enabled the authorities to crack down on critics and dissidents. It has blocked social media platforms like X, Facebook and TikTok on several occasions.
In January, Pakistan's parliament introduced a new amendment in the Electronic Crimes Act to further regulate cyber content, which included a new social media regulatory authority with its own investigation agency and tribunals.
Such tribunals will be able to try and punish alleged offenders with prison sentences of as long as three years and fines of two million rupees ($7,200) for dissemination of information deemed 'false or fake'.
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