“The systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective” is how Encyclopedia Britannica defines terrorism.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Rehman Malik’s warning regarding a pending ban on Google and YouTube last month, has been a source of much distress and trepidation among netizens. Citing Google’s failure to cooperate with Pakistani authorities investigating crimes and incidents of terrorism, the minister also proclaimed that a case be registered against the administrator of Google [Pakistan].
Now, website bans are nothing new in Pakistan. We all too well remember how Pakistan lost access to Blogspot (March 2006), YouTube (February 2008) and Facebook (May 2010). In addition to these, there have been other sporadic attempts to filter Pakistani cyberspace and ban websites perceived to be antagonistic to “national interests”.
Irrespective of how the Interior Minister’s demands to monitoring online communications and activities via Google services may have fared with Google and the “terrorists”, his words have struck terror in the heart of Pakistan’s internet users. The inconvenience and losses caused in the wake of previous website bans wan as compared to the implication of Rehman Malik’s demands. Tracking and monitoring online communication and activities to identify terrorists is now a worldwide trend. However, the government’s particular brand of ineptitude and mismanagement [when it comes to internet and IT-related issues] is reason enough for alarm.
Pakistan is a country plagued by terrorist attacks, inflation, lawlessness, corruption and a myriad of other problems. For many, the internet is the last bastion of hope, and a platform to discuss and vent against the issues that besiege us. Do we really need to add censorship, and the lack of freedom of expression and privacy to our litany of tribulations? — R.S
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Reba Shahid 