Pakistan: Escalating Crackdown on Internet Dissent

[Zibago]

we have even better candidate immu

So ameer ul momineen the funder of lej is not good enough :-(

 

[Khanate]

How can Pakistan control Indians living in India? @Well.wisher looks like your native city was turned in to LoR by army.

There is a clear pattern with these fake accounts even with accounts pretending to be Indian/Pakistani Muslim.

• They tweet multiple times a days.
• Always pro-Indian army and anti-Pakistan army with some propaganda on Balochistan thrown in.
• They NEVER post anything personal say, "I went for coffee *selfie*", like a regular, normal person.

They keep repeating the same old song. Too easy to spot, I swear.

 

[Solomon2]

...Today Pakistan announced that at least 200 Internet social media activists were under investigation for spreading negative material about the military. So far the government has only been able to identify about ten percent of the people behind the social media accounts. The government plans to prosecute while the military may, as it has done so often in the past, quietly kidnap and even murder some of these critics and let those “disappearances” terrify the others into silence. This Internet crackdown is a rare case of cooperation between the Pakistani government and military as they join forces to try and impose censorship on Internet social media that has been a little too effective in exposing corruption and worse in Pakistan. This year there has been more criticism of the Pakistani military (for deception, supporting Islamic terrorism, for corruption, for censorship) via the Internet. There are accusations that this social media crackdown is really about discrediting PTI, a popular political party (founded by sports hero Imran Khan in 1996). PTI wants to make Pakistan stronger by being anti-corruption, anti-Islamic terrorism and all for the military being subordinate to the elected government. PTI attracts a lot of young voters and that includes many of the growing Pakistani Internet savvy generation. As a result PTI uses the Internet to effectively expose government and military misbehavior (especially corruption and military support of Islamic terrorism). The current government is also seeking civilian control of the military but one thing the current political leadership and the generals agree on is that PTI means to put them both out of business and must be dealt with. Unfortunately this is not a new fight and failure to shut down PTI on the Internet only makes PTI more popular with the voters. There is a real possibility that PTI could not form of reform coalition that could win control of the government via elections.

As recently as 2008 it had become obvious that years of misbehavior had caught up with the Pakistani army and intelligence agencies. Their use of terror against non-Moslems (mainly Pakistani Christians, Hindus and Sikhs) and tribal rebels (especially in Baluchistan) was no longer hidden by censorship and media controls. The growth of the Internet brought with it the demise of the unenforceable media control laws. While the liberated media remained very nationalistic and pro-Islam, journalists also looked more closely at the terror campaigns sponsored by the military and intelligence agencies against Pakistani opposition groups. The murders and disappearances used by the military could no longer be hidden, and killing journalists was no longer as effective as it once was. But the killing and intimidation continues.

In March 2014 Pakistan was shown that older forms of censorship didn’t work anymore either and actually backfired. This was demonstrated when the government censored the 9,000 copies of the International New York Times that are printed and distributed in Pakistan. The local printer was ordered to simply leave blank the portions of the front page and inside pages where the 4,800 word story could be found about how Pakistani officials knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan before the Americans found and killed the terrorist leader in 2011. This backfired because too many Pakistanis had access to the Internet and knew what was going on. The government ordered blank spaces in the newspaper did not hide misbehavior it actually publicized it.

Meanwhile there have been more efforts at curbing Internet news. In late 2012 Islamic political parties in Pakistan forced the government to block over 20,000 websites, including YouTube, for displaying material considered critical of Islam. In addition the pro-Islamic parties organized dozens of demonstrations to protest, often violently, an American film accused of being anti- Islam. These demonstrations are part of an effort by the Islamic parties to establish themselves as censors for all Pakistanis. That did not work.

The 2012 crackdown began earlier in the year when the government blocked national access to Twitter for most of the day, apparently because of blasphemous (to some Moslems) activity on Twitter. Every day, if not every hour, there is something on Twitter that Islamic conservatives would consider blasphemous. What the Pakistani government particularly dislikes about Twitter is that it is a speedy conduit of reports on bad behavior by the Pakistani officials. Shutting Twitter down for a sustained period would be enormously unpopular.

Meanwhile the elected government and the military still have a major disagreement over the continued military/ISI support for Islamic terrorists. The military leadership, despite some growing internal disagreements, continues to support Islamic terrorists who operate against Afghanistan, India and Bangladesh. The elected officials have to handle foreign affairs and Pakistani diplomats report increasing hostility from the rest of the world over this issue. That includes China, the major military and economic patron of Pakistan. While the Chinese are not disturbed by anything the stirs up trouble within India, they are, in general, against nations that quietly support this sort of thing. The Chinese deliver their criticism quietly and discreetly. Everyone else does not and this makes it more difficult for the government to negotiate (especially trade and immigration deals) with the rest of the world. The generals are unmoved, in part because they see their decades of affluence and immunity at risk. Many Pakistanis understand that will not end well. The military tried to cope by increasing its efforts against ISIL, al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, all groups that are at war with the military, not on their payroll. The public views that as an apology by the generals, not some kind of gift...

 

[faisal6309]

Having your own opinion is blasphemy these days. Lives of all Atheists/Agnostics/ex-Muslims/non-Muslims living in Pakistan are in danger. Heck, even lives of Muslims are in danger. Muslims would kill Muslims for just an accusation not realizing it was just an accusation yet to be proven. I wonder what would these people do if they start genuinely criticizing Muslims for what they do.
People have their opinions, they will always have. They will try to find support for their opinions in community and on internet. Crackdown on these people for having their own opinion is crap.

 

[Orisis_]

Most baloch accounts are either operated from India or Afghanistan. Baloch citizens of Oman and Bahrain are also operate some of these accounts

How can Pakistan control Indians living in India? @Well.wisher looks like your native city was turned in to LoR by army.