Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan: Applying a ban on social media stops the happenings of organizations?
Recently, the federal government in Pakistan banned all main social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for several hours on Friday to maintain law and order in the country. All over the country, internet users faced difficulty while accessing these social media services from around 11 a.m. to around after 5 p.m. (Champs Write Report)
Also, the Pakistani government has banned various similar social media websites and applications many times in the past, but this is the first time that six major social media websites simultaneously blocked including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok. Even the similar messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram were shut down.
The government officials said in a statement that these social media sites will be closed across the country from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday.
Champs Write closely mentoring the situation. Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said in a video message that the ban was imposed by the banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan to stop any possible violent protests after Friday prayers and that the government would try to stop it in the near future.
Previously, the government has made several prompt attempts to restrict public access to social media websites. Last year, Bego Live and then TikTok were banned by the government for spreading "immoral content". In May last year, users complained that they had difficulty accessing Twitter and Zoom.
Moreover, a study by NetBlocks found that Internet access in Pakistan-administered Kashmir was blocked on several occasions in August and September 2020.
Earlier in 2018, similar incidents were observed in which the website of the political party Awami Workers Party was shut down.
On November 2017, Champs Write reported a partial ban on social media websites Twitter and Facebook in many cities of Pakistan by telecom companies.
Can sanctions stop the activities of banned organizations?
It remains a million dollar question. The Labbaik movement was banned by the government under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. Under the law, no person, media or platform is allowed to assist in disseminating the message of a banned organization or publish their ideology.
Tehreek-e- Labbaik -e-Pakistan is highly active not only as an organization but also on social media. When social media was temporarily blocked by the government, the trend in favour of the head of the banned organization, Saad Rizvi, was still one of the top trends on Twitter.
In addition, for the past three days, the leadership of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan has been sending messages to its workers through social media for violent protests. Meanwhile, several videos of Syed Zahee-rul-Hassan Shah, deputy chief of the organization, were also shared on social media in which he urged the workers not to back down. Champs Write also notices the bombardment of such content.
At the same time, the organization continued to cover the protests live through its Facebook pages. The Twitter accounts of Maulana Khadim Rizvi, founder of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, were shut down last year at the request of the Pakistani government.
In addition, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan has two official YouTube channels, while there are several channels that are not official of the organization but regularly share videos of the movement's leaders.
Osama Khilji, who works on Freedom of Internet in Pakistan, says that Pakistan has laws against those who spread hate speech and incite violence, but the government has never in the past enforced such laws against such organizations. It turns out that these laws are used against journalists and critics of the government and the state.
"If the government had taken action against these organizations under these laws from beginning, it would not be the possibility of such a ban on social media today."
Osama Khilji says that even when the name of Maulana Khadim Rizvi, the founder and former head of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, was included in the Fourth Schedule, his videos were shared on social media. Osama believes that depriving all users of the country of social media cannot stop banned organizations from inciting violence, and for that the government must formulate a comprehensive strategy.
Bytes for All, a digital rights organization, recently released a detailed report on the spread of hate speech on social media. Haroon Baloch, head of the organization, said that during the investigation, he found several pages and posts on the social media of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan which fall into the category of inciting hatred and violence and the report also mentions them.
But he says it is not possible to completely remove these organizations on social media because you may ban the organization but it is difficult to stop individuals from spreading their messages and ideology.
Both Osama and Haroon agree that social media companies are not immune. In addition to the government, social media companies also have a responsibility to prevent their websites and platforms from being misused, as we saw after the attack on the US Congress. However, these companies have There is a need to identify and take action against hate speech in Urdu, Punjabi and other local languages.
In this regard, the Champs Write contacted Facebook and pointed out to them the Facebook groups pages and accounts that were engaged in mobilizing people for protests in the name of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan or any other name and Asked what action Facebook took against him.
In response, Facebook said it was closely monitoring the situation and would remove content from its website that violated its rules.
Facebook says it has already added the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan and Khadim Hussain Rizvi to its list of dangerous individuals and organizations and continues to investigate the spread of hate speech by them.
On the other hand, the anti-terrorism agency CTD says that it has prepared a list of social media accounts of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan which will soon be handed over to the FIA for action.
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