PAKISTAN VOWS ‘MASSIVE’ SOCIAL MEDIA CRACKDOWN TO CURB HATE SPEECH

Pakistani authorities on Wednesday vowed to carry out a “massive” crackdown targeting hate speech and extremism on social media, as a minister boasted arrests have already been made. Information minister Fawad Chaudhry announced the government was setting up a new enforcement arm to regulate social media. “We made some arrests last week and we are launching a massive crackdown against social media users spreading hate speech and violence,” he said. “Our problem is that digital media is overtaking formal media, so it is important for us to regulate this,” Chaudhry said, adding, “Informal media is a greater problem than formal media.”