FACEBOOK NOT TO LINK PAK USERS’ NUMBERS TO ACCOUNTS

Facebook has declined Pakistan’s request to link all accounts with users’ mobile phone numbers, a media report said on Sunday.

“Pakistan had suggested that Facebook accounts be linked with users’ mobile phone numbers. However, the management of Facebook believed it was more feasible to sync accounts with email addresses,” a senior official from the ministry of information technology has said.

The official explained that the purpose of the request was to help the government deal with fake accounts, which were often used to spread hate material in cyberspace, the Dawn reported. He explained that the concept was the same that was employed by other messaging applications, such as WhatsApp.

“A WhatsApp account only becomes operational when a user enters a four digit code to verify the authenticity of the phone number entered by the user,” the official said.

However, according to the official, Facebook maintained that the policy for creating new accounts would remain unchanged. The social media giant termed Pakistan’s request to link all accounts to individual phone numbers as “improbable”, the daily said. But it had responded positively to Pakistan’s request to block blasphemous content and other hate material posted by users.

“Facebook has declined Pakistan’s request to link opening of Facebook new account to users cellphone number,” Facebook Spokesperson Christine Chen said.