Facebook Vice President Visits Pakistan to Discuss Issue of Blasphemous Content, he met Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali and discussed various steps and actions taken to remove the content that is illegal in Pakistan.
Facebook is trying hard to keep the platform safe and to remove fake accounts, explicit, hateful and provocative material that incites violence and terrorism.
While talking to the vice president, Chaudhry Nisar said that
The entire Muslim Ummah was greatly disturbed and has serious concerns over the misuse of social media platforms. “Nothing is more sacred to us than our religion and our holy personalities,” .
He added:
The government of Pakistan firmly believes in freedom of expression but cannot allow anyone to misuse social media for hurting religious sentiments or undertaking unlawful activities.
The minister appreciated Facebook for bridging communication gaps and providing people a platform to interact. Facebook is also serving as a vehicle for promotion of education, businesses, socio-economic development and empowering women in the country.
During the meeting, Joel Kaplan highlighted various initiatives of Facebook. He also informed the minister about its digital literacy campaign called iChamp. This campaign will educate youth on the benefits and safe use of internet. He said that
Facebook’s Developers Circles – a free community-led program for developers to connect, learn and collaborate with other local developers – have been started in Lahore and Karachi and would be launched in Islamabad soon.
Back in March 2017, Interior Ministry informed the Islamabad High Court that Facebook has removed 85% of blasphemous material from the social networking website. They have removed the content on the request of Government of Pakistan.
