The Senate Standing Committee on IT and Telecommunication exposed major rifts between Pakistani regulators and global tech giants, especially X, today. Chaired by Senator Palwasha Khan, the meeting highlighted glaring platform biases, ignored complaints, and a major upcoming shift in the country’s internet governance.
X Under Fire for Censorship
During the session, Senator Palwasha Khan accused X of extreme bias. She stated the platform systematically removes anti-Israel content. Specifically, she pointed to a recently deleted tweet from Defense Minister Khawaja Asif regarding Israel.
Khan questioned why X censored the post. However, the PTA Chairman, Major General (Retd.) Hafeez ur Rehman shut down the inquiry. He clarified that the Defense Minister never filed an official complaint with the authority. When the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) reached out directly, Asif simply brushed off the incident, claiming it was merely his personal account.
Consequently, X remains the least cooperative platform in the country. The platform currently holds the lowest compliance rate, acting on a dismal 27% of PTA requests.
Meta Faces Scrutiny Over Cybercrime
Meanwhile, Meta is also under the microscope. Pakistani security officials are formally reviewing Meta’s lack of cooperation in eliminating local cybercrimes. Over the past year alone, the PTA filed over 150,000 complaints directly with Meta.
Overall, social media platform compliance has seen some improvement. Following direct PTA interventions, average compliance jumped from 30% to 64%. Interestingly, Meta’s messaging app WhatsApp boasts the highest cooperation, executing actions on 98% of received complaints.
SMPRA Takes Over Social Media Regulation
Currently, the PTA only blocks or removes controversial and illegal content based on user complaints. Soon, this limited scope will change entirely.
The government has established a new entity: the Social Media Regulatory Authority (SMPRA). This new body will take complete control over all social media oversight. Therefore, the PTA will only manage content blocking until SMPRA becomes fully operational. Furthermore, the PTA Chairman deferred specific cybercrime matters to the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), noting they are better equipped to brief the committee on those agendas.
