Pakistan to ban 27 YouTube channels following court order

Dubai: The YouTube accounts of 27 journalists and content creators in Pakistan may soon be facing a ban following a recent order by the Islamabad court.

Legal authorities came to this conclusion following a recent inquiry by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) who began an investigation last month regarding content that may be classified as anti-state. Several accounts are at risk, including one of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Here’s what the latest developments are.

The NCCIA initiated their inquiry under the 2016 law of Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (or PECA). One of the key players in their investigation was Waseem Khan, the organisation’s Cyber Crime Circle Sub-Inspector.

He expressed his concerns regarding the YouTube channels stating they were, “found involved in sharing highly intimidating, provocative and derogatory contents against state institutions and officials of state of Pakistan,” according to reports by Dawn news.

The official court order was written by Judicial Magistrate Abbas Shah. The final statements by the court state: “In the light of facts explained and evidence presented by the IO, this court is convinced that the subject matter constitutes offences punishable under the PECA and penal laws of Pakistan,” Dawn news reports added.

Locally, YouTube serves a major hub for people not only as an entertainment platform, but as a space for news, political discussions, and other similar subjects. Thus, the new order has impacted Pakistan’s online journalism community the most.

One of the affected journalists is Asad Ali Toor, who currently has a YouTube channel with 333,000 subscribers. Despite the possibility of the ban, Toor emphasised that he would continue his online reporting.

“I assure everybody that I will keep covering Balochs, Missing persons, Blasphemy gang victims, minorities, fundamental rights, compromised judges, rigged elections, hybrid regime & unconditional role of forces,” he said on a statement posted to his X account.

Toor also shared the recent notice he received from YouTube following the court order. The notice from the platform explained the legal proceeding action stating, “You may choose to act on the said content in terms of the aforesaid court order. If you fail to do so, as per our local law obligations, we may comply with the request without further notice to you.”

Many other big name journalists are impacted by the new order. “The order named prominent figures such as journalists Matiullah Jan, Siddique Jan, Sabir Shakir, Asad Toor, Orya Maqbool Jan, and Imran Riaz Khan. Channels associated with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder were also included, along with others such as Abdul Qadir and Ahmad Noorani,” according to reports from the Associated Press of Pakistan.

Mariam Khan is a trainee journalist at Gulf News