Press Releases

Facebook is arbitrarily shutting down accounts discussing the Taliban takeover of Kabul and how the local communities are faring under the new rule of a group widely considered regressive in its ideology and quick to unleash aggression against critics and dissenters, especially women. DigiMAP demands an end to this policy and considers it a harsh form of censorship.

A particularly disturbing trend is that Facebook is blocking/limiting/restricting accounts of local journalists and digital media platforms sharing their opinions and reports on the subject but is tolerating commentators in the west talking about the same on their Facebook profiles. Journalist Adnan Rehmat’s case is a glaring example where his account was restricted by Facebook ‘for posting a photo of Pakistan’s ISI chief with Mullah Baradar’. “Strangely, the account of Arif Jamal, from where I borrowed the picture, is active and the photo is still there”, Adnan Rehmat told DigiMAP.

Adnan Kakar, the editor at HumSub, a progressive Urdu website, noted that Arif Jamal lived in North America while Adnan Rehmat had made the post from Pakistan. It is pertinent to mention here that Adnan Kakar’s personal account has also been permanently banned by Facebook.

“Any dragnet also appears to be mistakenly entangling others who have posted content pushing back against the Taliban. After the news site HumSub published an article this month to counter a local newspaper column praising another Taliban founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar, Facebook removed the article”, New York Times quoted Adnan Kakar as saying in a recent news story on Taliban’s ramped up a presence on social media.

“Immediately, we got a message that ‘your article is removed because of standards on dangerous individuals and organizations,’” he said. Mr. Kakar said his personal account and HumSub’s Facebook page were also suspended for 24 hours and blocked from livestreaming and advertising for 60 days. When he challenged Facebook, he said, he got no response.

Compounding the difficulties facing the platforms, many of the new pro-Taliban accounts have been careful to post content that does not openly espouse violence or hate speech, which would violate the companies’ rules. Mr. Kakar’s account is now permanently disabled by Facebook.
DigiMAP President Sabookh Syed’s account and the Facebook page of the digital media website that he heads, IBC Urdu, have also been blocked by Facebook for reporting on the latest developments in Afghanistan.

DigiMAP emphasizes that as per journalistic principles we report on public interest issues. Even if there is banned organization, if its members appear in public space, then commenting or reporting on such characters is a journalist imperative, not personal. Facebook needs to understand this, which it is failing to do. Punishing journalists for their journalistic acts is itself an act of censorship and cannot constitute a part of any legitimate community guidelines. This ends up hurting democracy and helping achieve the very purpose of terrorist groups: to ban free speech and escape accountability.

We, the Digital Media Alliance of Pakistan, believe that this policy must be reviewed at the earliest and Facebook needs to stop shutting down local voices watching the situation unfold from the ground. A petition to demand an end to ‘stop Facebook’s arbitrary restrictions/bans in the name of community standards’ has been started on change.org; we urge the readers to sign the petition and help us be heard.
(Ali Warsi, Lahore, for DigiMAP)

Kindly sign and share the following petition at change.org

Petition: Stop Facebook’s arbitrary restrictions/bans in the name of community standards

PRESS RELEASE – Digital Media Alliance of Pakistan (DigiMAP)
Thursday – June 3, 2021

ISLAMABAD: The Digital Media Alliance of Pakistan (DigiMAP) has expressed deep concern at the government proposal to create a new authority to regulate the entire spectrum of the country’s media sector including print, electronic, digital, and film.

“The proposed establishment of Pakistan Media Development Authority [PMDA] by merging all existing regulators and repealing major media-related legislation is unacceptable because this entails bulldozing existing structures and mandates to address government concerns rather than reforming them from the perspective of either the media or its consumers,” the Digital Media Alliance of Pakistan (DigiMAP) said in a statement issued here on Thursday (June 3, 2021).

DigiMAP is a Pakistan-wide alliance of independent digital media platforms focusing on public interest journalism aimed at promoting pluralism and bridging the information divide between the national mainstream and the periphery regions of the country.

“We reject the content of the draft concept paper on PMDA altogether as it proposes media tribunals to prosecute media practitioners, including digital journalists, that the Authority headed by a government-appointed bureaucrat will arbitrarily deem violative of law,” the statement jointly issued by DigiMAP President Sabookh Syed of IBC Urdu, Vice President Adnan Kakar of Hum Sub and General Secretary Adnan Amir of Balochistan Voices, said.

The DigiMAP statement also fully endorsed the rejection of the proposed PMDA by key media and civil society representative associations including Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors (AEMEND), Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA), All Pakistan Newspaper Editors (APNS), Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE), Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).

“The independent digital media community of Pakistan fully supports and joins hands with the print and electronic media communities, along with civil society and conscientious political parties in jointly opposing the government moves,” the DigiMAP statement declared.

The statement said that after heaping sustained censorship pressure on print and electronic media the government wanted to expand its coercive bullying tactics and silencing of all critical voices on the internet and digital media also, which would be opposed by both DigiMAP, netizens, and digital rights communities.

“There is an urgent need to expand media freedoms in both the digital and physical information spheres to protect all information practitioners including print, electronic and digital journalists instead of further curbing political and social pluralism in the country.

DigiMAP pointed out that recent research reports from Pakistani groups including Freedom Network (FN), Digital Rights Foundation (DRF), Institute for Research, Advocacy and Development (IRADA), and others have shown that the cases of attacks on journalists, curbs on free speech and harassment online have increased manifold in Pakistan over the past two years.

“The government should be focusing on reforming existing media laws to expand the guarantees on freedom of expression and right to information enshrined in the Constitution instead of limiting them under the new draft law that proposes expensive licensing of media operations, annual renewal permissions, and trials of print, electronic and digital journalists and other content producers, including citizens,” the DigiMAP statement said.

“Pakistan continues to slip further in rankings on freedom of expression and safety of journalists and information practitioners issued by global media watchdogs such as Reporters Without Borders, International Federation of Journalists, and Committee to Protect Journalists. If the government proposal materializes in the shape of a law or ordinance, it will end up pushing Pakistan on the bottom-most world ranks of media freedoms,” it said.

“Pakistan’s economic progress depends on its digital transformation and thriving cyberspace that fosters creativity, innovation, and free expression underwritten by global standards of digital rights. The proposed PMDA will kill this spirit of digital progress and DigiMAP will oppose this, along with its counterparts in print and electronic media, civil society, and human and digital rights communities,” the statement added.