Banning YouTube not a solution; will hamper Digital Pakistan vision, says Aidrus

Tania Aidrus, Head of Prime Minister’s Digital Pakistan initiative has voiced concerns after the Supreme Court of Pakistan hinted at shutting down YouTube platform owing to objectionable content available. She said that such a move will hamper the country from achieving its Digital Pakistan vision.

Expressing her views on social media, Aidrus said that banning the video-sharing platform is not the solution, and the previous such decision only resulted in hampering the growth of the country’s content creators.

“Banning a platform like YouTube is not a solution. The three years when YouTube was banned in Pakistan it held back our content creator ecosystem which has just started to flourish now, creating employment opportunities for thousands,” tweeted Aidrus.

She added that the authorities should focus on improving ‘curation of content.’

“Our focus should be on ensuring better curation of content through policy and dialogue. Brute force measures like banning will not serve any purpose and will hold us back from achieving the vision of Digital Pakistan.”

Taking notice of objectionable content being shared on YouTube and other social media platforms, the Supreme Court (SC) issued notices to the Foreign Office and the Attorney General in this regard on Wednesday.

While hearing a bail petition filed by Shaukat Ali, a man accused of a sectarian-based crime, a three-member bench, comprising Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed and Justice Aminud Din Khan took notice of the content being posted on social media.

Justice Amin asked whether the Federal Investigation Agency and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had seen what is happening on YouTube. He said YouTube is banned in many countries, while others control social media through local laws.

PTA authorities told that they could not remove individual content but could only report it.

Earlier, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry slammed the PTA and the country’s legal authorities for banning social media apps.

The minister was of the view that the ‘courts and PTA should stay away from 'moral policing'. “Courts and PTA must stay away from moral policing and Ban Approach, such bans on internet-based apps will destroy Pakistan tech industry and development of technology will be permanently hampered,” said Chaudhry in a tweet post on Wednesday.