POLICY BRIEF 2

Social media is displacing old means of propaganda to gradually become the favored instrument of outreach for religious fundamentalists in Pakistan.Extremist narratives and xenophobic ideas are transmitted via virtualplatforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc. to mass audience without muchscrutiny or obstruction from the authorities. The state’s nonchalance about online extremism results in inflammable situations in which non-adherents of state religion such as the Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, etc. suffer the most.Government watchdogs mandated to check faith-based hate speech have different priorities. While extremist contents proliferate on the Pakistani social media, state authorities like PTA usually remain obsessed with sexually explicit contents, for instance, tracking and blocking pornography etc. The authority tends to pose as a guardian of public morality in Pakistan.

Given that Pakistan has over 71 million active social media users, someargue that public sector lacks the means to effectively check hate speech or monitor immense amounts of data on social media, but evidence suggests it is more a question of interest and will rather than lack of expertise. For instance, government critics have been booked by authorities for criticism on social media. This indicates the government does have the surveillancecapacity to keep an eye on users. Whatever the reason, however, Pakistan