ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s decision to regulate the “uncontrolled” social media has received much backlash from the opposition circles as Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ahsan Iqbal has termed the government’s decision to monitor hate speech with “suppressing criticism”.
Earlier, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry had revealed that the federal government has decided to launch a comprehensive crackdown on “hate speech” on social media in Pakistan.
Speaking to a local media outlet, the former federal minister claimed that the “government is discombobulated and wants to suppress the critical voices”.
“The [PTI government] has aggravated the condition of freedom of expression in Pakistan by trying to monitor the social media,” he added.
Ahsan observed that the “government is furious because people are taking to social media to remind the government of their electoral promises”.
“We [PML-N] have no objection over the measures taken by the government to curb extremism and intolerance in the society – even if it includes the monitoring of social media,” he said while adding that “curbing the democratic freedom is simply unacceptable.”
