"Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Content" Rules now in effect in Pakistan

As part of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (2016), Pakistan's rules which would effectively govern social media platforms - known as the Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules, 2020 - are officially in effect as of today.

As published in The Gazette of Pakistan, under these new rules service providers and social media companies will be required to comply with various regulations, or to risk being indiscriminately blocked by the regulatory authorities. The rules state that social media companies and service providers have an obligation to block or remove unlawful online content within a span of 24 hours, since an official complaint would have been made.

These obligations include that service providers and social media platforms must publish clear Community Guidelines to gain access to any online system; which remains a part of any major social media platform prior to opening an account. Furthermore, service providers are instructed to flag or report any content that could fall under the following categories:

1. Belongs to another person, to which the user has no right.
2. Is blasphemous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, or invasive of another's privacy.
3. Violates or affects religious, cultural, ethnical sensitivities of Pakistan.
4. Harms a minor in any way.
5. Impersonates another person.
6. Threatens the integrity, security and defense of Pakistan, or public order, or causes incitement to any offence under the Act.

The rules add that "social media companies shall deploy appropriate mechanisms for identifying online content" which violate the aforementioned rules, and would have to subscribe to Pakistan's local data protection laws, which pertain to the storage and dissemination of private user data.