Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has become quite active in order to prevent the circulation of fake news on social media.
According to documents available to ProPakistani, at the request of PTA, social media companies have blocked 6,418 URLs involved in spreading fake news.
The regulator sent a total of 15,444 URLs involved in spreading fake news to social media platforms, out of which 6,418 URLs have been blocked by the companies. The social media platforms have refused to block 1,315 URLs whereas 7,717 URLs are still accessible.
According to the document, PTA has processed 107 URLs to Dailymotion for blocking out of which 104 URLs have been blocked. Dailymotion has rejected the blocking of only 1 URL whereas 2 links are still accessible.
PTA has requested 3,214 URLs to Facebook for blocking out of which 2105 URLs involved in spreading fake news have been blocked. Facebook has rejected the blocking of only 425 URLs whereas 684 links or URLs are still accessible.
Similarly, the telecom regulator has sent 140 URLs to Instagram involved in spreading fake news for blocking out of which 113 URLs have been blocked. Instagram has rejected only 8 URLs whereas 19 links or URLs are still accessible.
Tiktok has blocked 46 out of 50 links involved in spreading fake news whereas 4 URLs sent by PTA are still accessible.
According to the document, PTA has sent 8,413 links to Twitter for blocking out of which 2,227 links have been blocked. Twitter has rejected the blocking of 545 links whereas 5641 URLs are still accessible. YouTube has blocked 422 URLs out of 857 links sent by PTA. YouTube has rejected the blocking of 311 URLs whereas 124 links are still accessible.
The document shows that under section 22 of the PECA Act 2016, PTA has contacted the relevant social media platforms to take action against social media accounts and URLs spreading fake news. PTA has sent requests to these platforms after receiving complaints from General Public and institutions. After PTA’s request, social media platforms started blocking the accounts identified by PTA that are involved in spreading fake news.
According to PTA, if social media platforms refuse to block any content at the regulator’s request, the complainant is requested to file a complaint directly to these platforms. PTA has directed social media platforms to make the verification process stricter for creating accounts to prevent the spread of fake news through fake accounts.