Parliamentary body told: FIA has no technology to monitor WhatsApp, trace unknown numbers

ISLAMABAD: The Director General of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday informed a parliamentary body that the agency could not trace unknown or private numbers as well as it has no technology to monitor WhatsApp.

FIA DG Mohsin Butt, while briefing a Senate Special Committee constituted to inquire into an alleged video of Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, said if a video was received or forwarded through an unknown or private number then the FIA could not trace the number.

He said that following the press conference of Swati on November 5, the Ministry of Interior wrote a letter to the FIA and directed the agency to conduct a forensic analysis of an obscene video circulating on social media pertaining to Swati and submit a report.

“The agency’s cybercrime wing conducted a forensic analysis of the video and declared that the said video was fake and doctored,” he said, adding the agency submitted its initial report before the Interior Ministry.

Butt further said the fake video was prepared after combining two or three videos. “The video is doctored and not original,” he said. He also said that “neither we have received any complaint for Swati nor we have been provided the video that Swati had received,” he said, adding the agency had conducted a forensic analysis of the video available on social media.

When Senator Mushtaq Ahmed asked the DG FIA, suppose the video received by Swati was provided to the agency then can the FIA trace the number through which the video has been sent to Swati? The DIG FIA replied that efforts could be made to trace the number.

However, he clarified that if the number through which the video was forwarded to Swati through an unknown number or private number then the agency could not trace it.

Senator Saleem Mandviwalla asked the DG FIA that was it possible for the agency to trace the IP address of the device through a fake video has been forwarded? It is not a very difficult task to trace IP addresses, adding that this is not the first time that a fake video of a politician or bureaucrat surfaced on social media. “Even if it is a fake video then it was the responsibility of the FIA to arrest people involved in its making,” he said.

The DG said the FIA could only trace local IP addresses and could not trace foreign IP addresses. Pakistan has no agreement with social media platforms Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022