Islamabad: Pakistan is one of the top 10 countries in the world where Freedom The internet has declined, an international freedom advocacy group has said.
A report by Washington-based freedom home titled “Freedom on the NET 2021: Global boost to control large technology”, raises concerns over the rules proposed by the state that can damage the Liberty cyber, the Dawn Newspaper reported.
“The proposed regulation of Pakistan has caused alarm on its impact on end-to-end encryption.
This design requires social media companies and service providers with more than 500,000 users to submit personal data in a decrypted and read format when requested by the Federal Investigation Agency” said the report .
In some cases, the data localization requirements have been introduced in the context of the content regulation, he added.
“Removal and blocking proposed by Pakistan from the rules of online content that violates the law, the latest version published in November 2020, describes the requirements for social media companies to establish one or more data servers in this country,” the report said.
The Freedom House said global internet freedom had declined for the 11th year in a row and the biggest decline was documented in Myanmar, Belarus and Uganda.
Back in April, a similar report has recorded a dramatic decline in internet freedom in Pakistan in 2020.
The report said the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan has increased blocking political, social and cultural sites.
Reports – ‘Annual Pakistani Legal Media Review 2020’ – Launched by the Institute for Research, Advocacy and Development (Irada), Dawn has reported.
The report said Pakistan suffered a major setback in the enforcement of digital rights, freedom of expression and the right to information – especially in the online room – through regression in the field of policy and internet regulations.