Pakistani Court Threatens To Ban Facebook Over ‘Blasphemous Content’

The Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court, Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, on Wednesday said the court would during the next hearing on 27 March take a decision about whether social media websites in Pakistan, providing a platform to blasphemous content, should be banned or not.

The court, while hearing a case pertaining to the dissemination of blasphemous content through social media, also asked the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to submit its latest findings in this regard in the form of a report by next Monday, reports the Express Tribune.

During the hearing, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general (DG) Muhammad Amlish informed the court that they have completed their inquiry and have also registered a case two days ago. One person was earlier arrested on suspicion of sharing and spreading blasphemous content via social media, he added.

He said that the FIA had also expressed Pakistan's reservations with blasphemous, objectionable content with Facebook's management team. He confirmed that the social media giant had agreed to send a delegation to resolve Pakistan's concerns with the content on its website.

Justice Siddiqui remarked that time should be given to the Facebook management and until then he insisted that "it was important to ban Facebook in Pakistan."

With Inputs From ANI.