Facebook, Twitter not cooperating with authorities, Senate body told

ISLAMABAD: Senate's sub-committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication Friday was apprised by NR3C that big social media giants Facebook and Twitter were not cooperating with the authorities regarding spread of fake news on social media through unverified accounts.

Committee met to take up the complaint lodged by the committee chairperson, Senator Rubina Khalid, regarding fake tweets and Facebook posts about recovery of huge quantity of gold from her house.

During last meeting of the committee, on the orders of convener Senator Kulsoom Parveen, those who were involved in spreading the news were brought into the meeting to explain this act.

A professor from an Islamabad based university, who also retweeted the news, regretted his behavior and explained that he forwarded the news as a joke.

Director of the National Response Centre for Cyber Crime (NR3C) informed the committee that the social media accounts of the main initiator of the news against Senator Rubina Khalid had been verified and all necessary measures were being taken to punish them.

They said the Twitter and Face book administrations had been approached with the details of accounts involved in cyber bullying and fake propaganda, and their replies were awaited.

He told the house that NR3C has 15000 cases pending for which only 50 investigating officers have been deployed.

“There are 15 cyber crime centers all over the country with the staff of just 130 personnel which makes it difficult for NR3C to function promptly”, he added.

The meeting was chaired by Kalsoom Parveen and attended by senators Dr Ashok Kumar and Dr Ghous Muhammad Khan Niazi along with the officials of FIA cyber crime center and Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication.