Cybercrime bill controversy
The apprehensions and reservations of the opposition parties, experts and analysts over the recently passed cybercrime bill of 2016 have proven to be correct. The Punjab government sent a notice to Hamza Ali Abbasi over his claim on social media that more than 900 children had been kidnapped in the last three months in Punjab, 400 in Lahore.
The notice says that the claims made by the TV actor who is also a member of PTI and the party’s ex culture secretary, are exaggerated and false. There have been multiple news stories on child abduction in Punjab in recent months with a variety of numbers of kidnapped children and conflicting timelines.
It is therefore likely that the words ‘callous animals’, being used to refer to PML-N leaders in the original social media post are what actually irked the Punjab government more so than the misrepresentation of facts that was mentioned in the legal notice.
Whatever the actual reason may be for the notice being sent, it is an overreaction on part of the government. Sending legal notices under an already controversial law to representatives of opposition parties over their rude outbursts on social media is a losing battle for the government.
The government should instead attempt to address more serious issues that are a result of misuse of social media, something that the law is actually meant for. Incidents such as doctored pictures being used to blackmail people on websites, hate speech on online forums and terrorist recruitment via websites should be given priority.
Hamza Ali Abbasi himself is a controversial figure with thousands of followers on various social media platforms. It is hence his moral obligation to use such reach in a more responsible manner and highlight serious issues such as child abductions after some independent research rather than just citing unsubstantiated figures from news articles. Using better language to address elected members of parliament is also advised.
