The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has issued notices to Google and Wikipedia over the dissemination of “sacrilegious content” on their platforms, saying a legal action will be taken in case of a failure to remove the content.
In a press release shared on its Twitter handle, the PTA said that the action against the tech giant and the online encyclopedia was taken after “complaints regarding misleading search results associated with ‘Present Khalifa of Islam’ and unauthentic version of Holy Quran uploaded by Ahmadiyya Community on Google Play Store” were received.
Calling it a matter of a “very serious nature”, the PTA approached Google with the directives “to immediately remove the unlawful content”.
“The platform has been issued with the notice under Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguard) Rules 2020 (“Rules”) to remove the sacrilegious content to avoid any legal action by the regulator,” it added.
According to the PTA, people also registered complaints against Wikipedia for “hosting of caricatures of Holy Prophet (PBUH) and dissemination of misleading, wrong, deceptive and deceitful information through articles portraying Mirza Masroor Ahmad as a Muslim”.
“After extensive communication on the matter, Wikipedia has been finally served with the notice to remove the sacrilegious content to avoid any legal action,” the statement added.
“In case the platforms remain non-compliant, PTA shall be constrained to initiate further action under Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA) and Rules 2020,” said the regulatory authority.
