When are we going to see social media crackdown?

Bullies once terrorized the playground where they were seen pushing kids around, called them bad names, and even stole their lunch and money. Then we grew up and graduated, and we thought we have got rid of the bullies forever. Unfortunately, just because we have grown up, doesn’t mean the bullies are not around. Bullies exist in all spheres of life, from angry bosses to perpetually unhappy clients, bullies are everywhere. And now, bullies even exist online.

Online bullies are known as cyberbullies. These are the people who attack or harass individuals or businesses online. They may simply have a difference of opinion, or they may have a cause to spread hatred. Whatever their purpose is, cyberbullies are often brutal and unreasonable. They don’t care about the feelings of others. Cyberbullies are major problem for businesses on social media. They tend to hijack pages and write really bad reviews just for the sake of causing troubles for others.

How to deal with the cyberbullying?

With over 100 million users of smartphones in Pakistan, our country has been included in the list of the fastest-growing countries that are using the internet which also allows cyber bullies to be active, yet there is no proper legislation for cybercrimes in Pakistan.

Cyberbullying can be very tricky to deal with. The bullies can be brutal, relentless and very personal. But it is best to not stoop to their low level. Nothing makes you look worse than turning around and attacking in return. There is no need to worry. It’s all about how you approach the situation. It’s also important not to let the potential for a cyberbully attack prevent you from using social media or going online.

You can simply register your campaign is FIA. write down your application either in English or in Urdu, narrate your complete problem, provide some evidences, details as you can and send it to FIA National Response Center for Cyber Crimes(NR3C).

In the last few years, the media has faced a crackdown in Pakistan. There are number of cases, where the journalists have been targeted by the state, or the news websites have been banned in last few years. The curbs on press freedom are proved by Pakistan’s Press Freedom Index 2020, where the country has dropped to 145 from 142 last year. This has been observed that banning trend against media doesn’t stop at the print or electronic media, and it has spread to social media. The latest case of country’s increasingly strict cybercrimes law was the ban on TikTok. The App is massively popular among the youth, was the mean of entertainment for millions, including the poor. In a statement, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said that ban has been imposed, “in view of number of complaints from different segments of the society against immoral/indecent content on the video sharing application TikTok.” The ban was later overturned.

Experts believe that the crackdown on media and social media is not new in Pakistan. Almost every government has either stopped the airing of content against the rulers, and has banned social media sites including YouTube. Banning a site is not the solution to bullying. Bullies should be dealt with wisdom. Their social media accounts should be blocked. It is better to educate the masses about the freedom of speech. People should be broadminded and should learn to ‘agree with the disagreement’.

 

by: Abeer Arshad 

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