Islamabad:
Islamabad Further sessions Judge Afzal Majoka on Friday suspended a local court’s order banning 27 YouTube channels run by various prominent Pakistani journalists and content creators.
The judge heard a plea filing against the ban. The legal challenge was led by a number of lawyers, including Riasat Ali Azad, Zainab Janjua, Imaan Mazari and Farukh Jillani.
Islamabad Justicial Magistrate Muhammad Abbas Shah on July 8 issued a two-page order banning 27 YouTube channels after hearing a request filed by the newly created National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA).
NCCIA had claimed that the channels were involved in spreading false and misleading information against state institutions. The channels included those run by recognized journalists such as Orya Maqbool Jan, Aftab Iqbal, Mutiullah Jan and Imran Khan Riaz and Asad Toor.
“[This propaganda] are likely to cause fear, panic, disorder, and unrest in the public or society with defamatory and false remarks. [This also] violating privacy and damages the dignity of the officials of the state institutions, ”it added.
According to NCCIA, through these channels, the content created to provoke the public and armed forces’ staff by trying to create a sense of bad will among the colors of the state.
In his order, the Court noted that, after examining the facts and evidence presented by NCCIA investigators, the Court was convinced that the channels committed offenses under the law on the prevention of electronic crimes (PECA), 2016 and criminal law in the country.
“Head/Office responsible for the security department/depot manager of records for Google LLC, D/A/B YouTube 901 Cherry Avenue, San Bruno, CA 94066 US is therefore corrected to block/remove the said YouTube channel,” noted the order.
Asad Toor, whose account was among the blocked, went to X to confirm the suspension of the ban.
The order was the latest in a number of laws and regulations from Islamabad that have enabled the authorities to crack down on critics and dissidents. It has blocked social media platforms such as X, Facebook and Tiktok on several occasions in the past.
In January, Parliament introduced a new change to PECA to further regulate cyber content, which included a new regulatory authority on social media with its own investigative agency and courts.
Toor said that neither the court nor the cybercrime agency gave him a chance to respond to the claims and that he would take lawsuits against the court decision. “It’s a dictatorial move. It can’t cushion me,” he said.
