Social Media Versus a Nation State: Pakistan Versus the Facebook and Friends
February 29, 2020
DarkCyber believes that collisions of conscience and money will become more frequent in 2020. “Facebook, Twitter, Google Threaten to Suspend Services in Pakistan” explains that the Asia Internet Coalition does not want a nation state to get in the way of the standard operating procedures for US companies. Imagine. A country telling US firms what’s okay and what’s not okay. A mere country!
The government of Pakistan’s social media position is reflected in this passage from the article:
The new set of regulations makes it compulsory for social media companies to open offices in Islamabad, build data servers to store information and take down content upon identification by authorities. Failure to comply with the authorities in Pakistan will result in heavy fines and possible termination of services.
The consequences of ignoring the nation state’s approach to social media are not acceptable to the US companies. Pakistan’s ideas are easy to understand:
According to the law, authorities will be able to take action against Pakistanis found guilty of targeting state institutions at home and abroad on social media.
The law will also help the law enforcement authorities obtain access to data of accounts found involved in suspicious activities. It would be the said authority`s prerogative to identify objectionable content to the social media platforms to be taken down. In case of failure to comply within 15 days, it would have the power to suspend their services or impose a fine worth up to 500 million Pakistani rupees ($3 million).
DarkCyber finds it interesting that three high profile social media companies have formed some sort of loose federation in order to catch Pakistan’s attention.
Will the play work? Will other countries fall in line with the social media firms’ ideas of what’s acceptable and what’s not? Will China, Russia, and their client states for with the social media flow or resist? Are the US companies unreasonable?
Interesting questions.
Stephen E Arnold, February 29, 2020
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