Authorities acted against over 1.5 million illegal URLs and blocked 6.5 million domains featuring obscene content, the National Assembly was informed on April 2.

The actions were detailed in a report submitted by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA),  highlighting the surge in online violations including the circulation of blasphemous and explicit material across various platforms, notably TikTok.

The report unveiled significant figures, showing 545 cases of cyber harassment and 322 cases of hate speech last year. Additionally, incidents involving the distribution of fake information accounted for 187 cases, while 58 cases concerned child sexual abuse content.

Victim statistics revealed that 360 women and 110 men faced cyber harassment. Conversely, hate speech affected 273 men and 42 women. The spread of false information impacted 180 men and 21 women.

In their ongoing effort to combat such offences, the NCCIA has blocked over 600 URLs featuring blasphemous and obscene content, while the PTA has employed its Web Monitoring System (WMS) to enhance its capability to comprehensively block HTTPS websites.

Moreover, in response to 435 registered complaints, 98 inquiries, 42 cases and the arrest of 73 individuals were recorded. To date, courts have convicted three individuals.

Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, told the National Assembly, stating that the government is actively tackling the proliferation of blasphemous and pornographic material through the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016. This legislation supports a multi-agency approach to effectively monitor, block, and prosecute offenders.

Despite the progress, the NCCIA acknowledges the continuous challenges posed by the vast amount of content uploaded online each minute and is committed to enhancing its resources.