“The proposed changes to cybercrime law aims to further stifle the freedom of expression through setting up of multiple authorities under executive control, enlarging foot print of unaccountable intelligence agencies and giving sweeping powers to the executive not only over the contents of the message but also the messengers, namely the social media platforms”
This has been stated in a statement by former President Farhatullah Babar, president of the Human Rights Cell of the PPP as the proposed changes to the cybercrime law became public today.
He said that a highly disturbing aspect of the law is that henceforth the Social Media Authority will form Joint Investigation Teams (JITs) with members drawn from unnamed intelligence agencies to investigate allegations against journalists, social media users and the general public.
“This is a dangerous enlargement of the already large footprint of unaccountable state agencies in governance and deeply impacts all strata of society, not merely journalists and social media users”.
What the JITs with dominance of intelligence agencies are known to have done in the past needs no elaboration, he said.
The law stipulates creation of a government appointed Tribunal to adjudicate appeals against arbitrary decisions of another executive-appointed body called Social Media Authority in the cases of freedom of expression. As if appeal against an executive authority before another executive authority is not enough of a mockery, the law also restricts the tiers of judicial appeal to only one before the Supreme Court.
This limitation of judicial tiers amounts to extending the torture of aggrieved citizen for exposing corruption, malpractices and skeletons in the cupboards of high and mighty, he said.
He said that so far, the arbitrary shut downs of social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) were denied by the government. Under the new law the Social Media Authority is empowered to close down any social media platform. Apart from powers to block the content it shall have the powers to block the carrier of the content.
“The specter of disappearing both the creator and carrier of the message without oversight and accountability on the basis of reports of unaccountable agencies is frightening”.
Farhatullah Babar urged the members of Parliament to reject it saying “it will stand out as black line in the CVs of members voting it”. He also reminded that when the PTI government introduced similar curbs the opposition at the time stoutly resisted it. Now in power they can go back on their earlier stance only at the peril of their credibility and public standing. “There is enough baggage that the parliament carries and it is best to not add to it”.