Facebook delegation meets Fawad Chaudhry - Fawad seeks Facebook’s cooperation to curb hate speech, boost e-commerce

Facebook delegation meets Fawad Chaudhry - Fawad seeks Facebook’s cooperation to curb hate speech, boost e-commerce

ISLAMABAD (Myvoicetv web desk)  Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has emphasized the need for formal collaboration to explore the avenues of cooperation with Facebook to promote commerce and business activities in Pakistan.

Talking to Vice President of Public Policy Facebook Simon Milner in Islamabad on Monday, he sought Facebook’s cooperation to counter hate speech and boost E-commerce in Pakistan.

Simon Milner underlined the need for coordination between the government of Pakistan and Facebook, to encourage freedom of expression and create a safe environment.

Read More: Minister appreciates Facebook, Twitter for combating fake news

In a statement last month, the federal minister for information welcomed an action initiated by Facebook and Twitter in fighting the menace of fake news.

Expressing his gratification to the two major online networking websites in their action against fake news, Chaudhry also appealed the WhatsApp to adopt similar approach to do away with the menace.

Here’s what he said in his tweet: “It’s so welcoming that giants like Twitter and Facebook are now fully committed to regulate their platforms to combat the menace of fake news and hate mongering, YouTube and Whatsapp plz consider same policy for a safer world.”

The minister said it was encouraging to find out that they share common grounds to deal with hate speech and related content that leads to violence in the society. “We believe in freedom of expression and free speech,” he said. “Our only concern is to defy hate speech and blasphemous content that incites violence,” he said while explaining the government’s approach on social media.

Milner underlined the need for coordination between Pakistan’s government and Facebook to encourage expression and create a safe environment as Facebook is a global platform that gives more than two billion people globally the opportunity to connect and share. “We have clear rules against hate speech and content that has the potential to incite violence, and share the same commitment to remove such content in Pakistan, and globally,” Milner said.

Fawad proposed Facebook to have an official operational unit in Pakistan. “We will facilitate the office entity with the best available protocols,” he added.

Milner expressed the Facebook’s commitment to help its community, including small businesses and developers in Pakistan to connect, share and grow.

Earlier this year, Facebook committed to train 20,000 women entrepreneurs across 150 women empowerment centres in Pakistan in collaboration with the Universal Service Fund, adding that its developer circles had a thriving community of 7,800 developers across Islamabad, Lahore, Sahiwal, Gujrat and Faisalabad.

Federal Minister for IT Khalid Maqbool Siddique was also present in the meeting.