The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has blocked more than 100 social media accounts at the request of Islamabad police for promoting sectarianism, anti-state, terrorist, and anti-Islam activities.
FIA has blocked 106 social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube after the Provisional of Violent Extremism Unit (PVE) of Islamabad police’s Counterterrorism Department (CTD) found that these accounts were allegedly involved in illegal activities, including sectarianism, anti-state, terrorism, and anti-Islam, Dawn reported.
The PVE had recommended blocking 203 accounts:164 Twitter, 38 Facebook, and one YouTube, of which 106 had been blocked by now.
On May 9, the Pakistani authorities shut down the internet across Pakistan and restricted access to Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms amid violent protests by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters against the arrest of their leader Imran Khan.
International human rights watchdogs, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, had urged the authorities to uplift the ban since it was against fundamental human rights.
It was reported that the national exchequer suffered a loss of more than Rs3.5 billion due to vandalism and arson by the PTI workers and the government’s shutdown of the internet.
Pakistan has placed a number of restrictions on the free flow of information to social media sites.
A 27-year-old Islamabad resident, Aneeqa Ateeq, is on death row after a court found her guilty of committing “blasphemy” on Whatsapp last year. Aneeqa Ateeq has maintained that she was deliberately dragged into a religious discussion by her accuser after she refused his advances. The Lahore High Court is yet to take up her appeal against the death sentence.
 has blocked more than 100 social media accounts at the request of Islamabad police for promoting sectarianism, anti-state, terrorist, and anti-Islam activities. ){kind=link}