Pakistan threatens Google, Wikipedia over ‘sacrilegious content’

Pakistan regulators on Friday decried internet giants Google and Wikipedia for “disseminating sacrilegious content.”

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) called for the immediate removal of “unlawful content” from Google. The regulators pointed to pages that name religious leader Mirza Masroor Ahmad as the current “Khalifa” or leader of Islam, thus contradicting dominant religious beliefs in the country. They also decried an “unauthentic version of Holy Quran” on Google Play Store.

“Complaints were also received regarding hosting of caricatures of Holy Prophet (PBUH) and dissemination of misleading, wrong, deceptive and deceitful information through articles published on Wikipedia portraying Mirza Masroor Ahmad as a Muslim,” the PTA said in a statement published on its official Twitter handle.

Mirza Masroor Ahmad is honored as a Khalifa by members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, a persecuted minority in Pakistan.

“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,” the Pakistani regulator added.

Source: The Indian Express/Deutsche Welle