Tag: twitter

  • Google, Facebook and Twitter threaten to shut services in Pakistan

    Google, Facebook and Twitter threaten to shut services in Pakistan

    When PTI’s government unveiled some of the world’s most sweeping censorship rules for the internet, global internet companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter threatened to shut services in the country, a step which would leave 70 million internet users in digital darkness, New York Times reported

    Through the Asia Internet Coalition, they wrote a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, warning him that “the rules as currently written would make it extremely difficult for AIC Members to make their services available to Pakistani users and businesses.”

    READ MORE: Punjab govt’s first-ever digital payment method collects Rs1 billion

    This undemocratic policy of PTI’s government faced severe backlash from rights groups forcing the government to retreat. Pakistani officials, this week, pledged to review regulations by doing a broad-based consultation process with all relevant stakeholders of civil society and technology companies.

    Pakistan’s digital censorship law will give power to the government to take-down a wide range of content. These laws can be easily abused by the powerful if they consider any sort of content harmful, distasteful or simply a threat to their interests.

    The unified resistance by Facebook, Google, Twitter and other tech companies in Pakistan is highly unusual. Companies often protest these types of regulations, but to leave a country is very unusual. Google pulled its search engine out of China in 2010 rather than submit to government censorship of search results.

    READ MORE: OGRA to drastically cut down petrol prices

    Under the new regulations, formally known as the Citizen Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules 2020, social media services must remove or block content within 24 hours of a request from a newly appointed officer, called the national coordinator.

    Companies must also prevent the live-streaming of any type of content the authorities say is objectionable.

    In addition, the companies must open permanent offices in Islamabad and set up servers to store data in the country. Violations of the law are subject to fines of more than $3 million, with the authorities even empowered to block services entirely.

    READ MORE: Christian youngster killed for ‘polluting’ tube-well water by bathing in it

    The new laws are a direct threat to the digital economic future for Pakistan. This will also decrease freedom of expression, increase censorship and diminish digital rights.

    What is interesting to note is that PM Khan rose to power in Pakistan in 2018 largely because of his party’s strong presence on social media. But now that he is in charge, and he is very intolerant towards online criticism.

    Pakistan’s powerful military is also averse to debates on social media platforms, especially on Twitter, which is used by critics to question human rights violations and Pak-military’s involvement in politics.

  • Australian journalist hosts ‘world’s biggest tea party’ in Abhinandan’s memory

    Australian journalist hosts ‘world’s biggest tea party’ in Abhinandan’s memory

    Australian cricket journalist Dennis Freedman, who is known for his love for Pakistan and trolling India over Twitter, has hosted “world’s biggest tea party” to mark the first anniversary of Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman’s capture following an aerial dog fight in 2019.

    The nation on Thursday honoured the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), which countered Indian strikes exactly a year ago in response to India’s violation of Pakistan airspace during the post-Pulwama stand-off.

    Ahead of the celebrations, a group of local and foreign media journalists visited for the first time, the area in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) where the air force downed an Indian aircraft near the Line of Control (LoC) last year.

    On February 27 last year, warplanes from both sides had engaged in a dogfight along the LoC in Kashmir. The PAF had downed an Indian aircraft and arrested Abhinandan. But a day later, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan had announced his release as a goodwill gesture.

    With a viral video showing Abhinandan praising officers of the Pakistan Army for being “professional and thorough gentlemen” while having “fantastic” tea served to him under their custody, the words ‘tea’ and ‘fantastic’ repeatedly made headlines for their meanings being changed for good in Pakistan.

    The catchphrase also became the top trend on social media as Pakistan celebrated the first anniversary of the series of events from last year on Thursday, and Dennis, who is in the country to cover the ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL), tweeted a video saying he was hosting the “world’s biggest tea party”.

    https://twitter.com/DennisCricket_/status/1232749713016991746

    He said that people did not need to be in Pakistan with him to join the party, urging people to share their images and videos enjoying tea.

    https://twitter.com/DennisCricket_/status/1232966646240874496

    Here’s how Twitterati responded:

    https://twitter.com/DennisCricket_/status/1232911848787382272

    The government had earlier this month also decided to celebrate February 27 as “Surprise Day” to commemorate Operation Swift Retort against the IAF.

  • LLF organisers respond to criticism ‘for blocking certain Twitter handles’

    LLF organisers respond to criticism ‘for blocking certain Twitter handles’

    Organisers of the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) — an international literary festival held annually in Lahore — have responded to claims of blocking over Twitter the academics and journalists who “criticised” or “contradicted” the event due Friday (February 21).

    “No amount of education [or] money can evolve these illiberal liberals, so rich and entitled that they cannot stand the idea of anyone contradicting them. Kingmakers basically because they have money and clout (and enough alcohol to ply all of Lahore’s elite),” wrote journalist Sabahat Zakariya after being blocked by the LLF over the social network.

    She, however, wasn’t the only person to be blocked by the LLF on Twitter.

    https://twitter.com/hussainjahanzeb/status/1230100773855428608

    “Constructive criticism is always great and we greatly welcome it,” read a statement issued by the LLF to The Current.

    “Anybody who may have in the past made unreasonable or inappropriate remarks may possibly have been blocked to help the organisers steer clear of digression and focus on our passion for literature,” the statement read further, adding it was also possible that the blocks were from last year.

    LLF:

    The eighth edition of the annual LLF is set to commence on February 21, 2020, at the Alhamra Arts Center, Mall Road.

    The three-day event, culminating on February 23, 2020, will continue its tradition of hosting eminent writers, historians, artists and opinion makers from Pakistan and abroad with over a hundred speakers and 63 sessions.

    Free and open-to-the-public, this year’s event will feature, among others, Oyinkan Braithwaite, who was long-listed for the Man Booker 2019; author Musharraf Ali Farooqi, who will launch his latest book, The Merman and the Book of Power; novelist and poet Nitasha Kaul, who has written on the plight of Kashmir in Modi’s India; and Adrian Hayes, who will launch One Man’s Climb, a book about his journey to reach the summit of K2.

    The full slate of panels and participants for the three-day event is available here in PDF format

  • Coronavirus: JI woman leader trolled for comparing hazmat suit to burqa

    Amid global coronavirus fears, Jamaate Islami (JI) leader Dr Samia Raheel Qazi on Wednesday was trolled for what appeared to be a comparison between a hazmat suit and burqa on her Twitter.

    “Food for thought,” the women wing leader of the religio-political party wrote as she tweeted two images, one of which showed a person in a hazmat suit and the other a burqa-clad woman.

    The tweet that came as the world battles the deadly coronavirus that has so far claimed at least 500 lives and left over 24,000 others infected, met with trolling on the micro-blogging website, as people reacted to what they said was an absurd comparison.

    Meanwhile, China’s National Health Commission has said the number of confirmed infections in the country rose to 24,324 after an additional 3,887 people were diagnosed with the virus.

    Other countries have rushed to evacuate their citizens from Hubei and its capital city, Wuhan, while many have also imposed extraordinary travel restrictions on travellers to and from China, Al Jazeera reported.

    Countries outside China continue to report more cases, with Hong Kong and the Philippines reporting one death each from the disease.

    The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for greater solidarity among the international community, and criticised governments for being “well behind” in sharing data on virus cases. He said he had received complete case report forms for only 38 per cent of the cases outside China.

    THE CURRENT LIFE WITH DR SAMIA RAHEEL QAZI:

  • Satirical headline comes true as PM tells ministers ‘to fix things by not watching news’

    Satirical headline comes true as PM tells ministers ‘to fix things by not watching news’

    A satirical headline from five years ago has come true as Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has told members of his government to “quit following news in order to fix things”, author of the satirical tweet pointed out on Friday.

    “To avoid getting depressed, [party] workers should shut their cameras, stay away from television screens, turn their mobile phones off and go to sleep after popping some pills,” Broken News — a “parody news channel” — had quoted then opposition member Imran as saying in 2015.

    While it was nothing but a satirical headline back then, the same statement, five years later, has made its way to newspapers after the premier actually said something quite similar.

    Speaking at a breakfast session aimed at showcasing his vision for Pakistan and its economic potential before the global business leaders as well as overseas Pakistanis in Davos, PM Imran said he had stopped reading morning newspapers and watching evening talk-shows due to extreme negativity targeted at him in the media.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    “I’m trying to make my team understand this. The problem is that they watch the chat shows and they come… sitting there shell-shocked in cabinet meetings,” said the premier, who was in the Swiss town to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

    The similarity was pointed out by the author of the satirical tweet:

    Meanwhile, PM Imran has returned to the country from Davos where he attended different ceremonies and met key world leaders, including United States (US) President Donald Trump.

  • Pictures of Switzerland tagged as North Waziristan trending on Twitter

    Pictures of Switzerland tagged as North Waziristan trending on Twitter

    This tweet from Khalid Wazir, whose bio on the popular social platform says that he is a ‘Pushtun, Engineer-Photographer’ has gone viral.

    Viral tweet showing pictures of Switzerland with the caption “My cows, Razamk North Waziristan”

    Khalid tweeted pictures of Switzerland saying, ‘My cows, Razamk North Waziristan’. The tweet went viral and was misleading. Khalid tweeted the pictures and then, replying to his own tweet said:

    In an obvious jab at analyst Saleem Safi, Khalid seems to have meant that Safi is trying to say that all is perfect in Waziristan.

    His first tweet went viral and politicians retweeted the pictures, not realizing the context of the tweet.

    Khalid then clarified why he had posted the pictures.

    Despite his clarification, the pictures are still trending on Twitter.

  • How to reduce social media’s toxicity

    How to reduce social media’s toxicity

    You often decide to take a break from social media that is called “toxic” by a large number of people.

    Toxic social media is disturbing the sanity of their minds because there are tons of disturbing news out there. Despite deactivating all social media profiles, you see them coming back again. Yes, it is addictive, but here is what you can do to reduce its toxicity.

    1. UNFOLLOW ON FACEBOOK

    Most of us have Facebook profiles along with other 1.5 billion people who use it every day. We all started with sharing pictures on our profiles, or with our friends, but now it has turned into a battlefield of narratives between people. The best thing you can do is to ‘unfollow‘ those people who you want to avoid.

    Facebook is structured in a way that it will show you everything that you have searched in the past or what your friends are discussing, but when you unfollow someone, you’ll no longer see their activities or discussions.

    In some circumstances, you cannot unfriend or block a person, because of the reaction that you will get would be proportional to a threat of breakup or a divorce. So unfollow that person to cut down negativity.

    2. Stop tapping on everything on Instagram 

    Although you might have control over what you follow on Instagram, you may turn off comments on your posts, or you do not follow hashtags that you do not like. But, what about the search tab that shows you the weirdest stuff you cannot even imagine in your nightmare. Here come the algorithms of Instagram.

    If you are tapping on the pictures of dogs, 50-60% of the picture you might see would be of dogs – the rest of the pictures will depend on the previous searches done from your account. So, if you want to cut down what you see in the search tab, skip it for a few days and tap on only those items that you want to follow.

    3. Twitter is not easy

    Cutting toxicity on Facebook or Instagram might be little convenient, but handling Twitter in this regard is tricky. You might follow a writer that posted something you like, but their next tweet ruins your entire day, what you can do about it? Here is what you can do.

    To block or unfollow that most toxic account would be just right. But if you like the real tweets of someone’s account and do not like their retweets, you can simply turn off retweet on a per-account basis. Moreover, you can use quality and advance filters to censor the words you do not like.

    These are few tools you can tweak to filter toxicity, but if you really want to cut down of social media poison; discipline yourself. The biggest filter one can use is to have positive thinking, but that is another topic for some other day.

  • VIDEO: Özil congratulates Pakistani couple holding Arsenal banner at wedding

    VIDEO: Özil congratulates Pakistani couple holding Arsenal banner at wedding

    German professional footballer and Arsenal star Mesut Özil has congratulated the viral Pakistani couple that held an Arsenal banner at its wedding while also making the hand gesture that Özil makes each time he scores.

    Sharing the viral video on his official Twitter handle, the German footballer wrote:

    “Congratulations to this @Arsenal Pakistan couple Inam ul Haq and Arooj Talat Khan! Btw nice celebration in the end. All the best for you two! #wedding#YaGunnersYa#M1Ö [sic],” he tweeted.

    ARSENAL VS CHELSEA:

    Meanwhile, midweek Premier League actions sees Chelsea host Arsenal as part of Matchday 24 with both clubs coming off of disappointing results last Saturday.

    Chelsea enters in fourth place with a 12-3-8 record but just lost 1-0 at Newcastle on a last-minute goal. Arsenal, meanwhile, was held to a draw at home against Sheffield United and enters this game in 10th place, struggling for any type of consistency.

    These two teams just met on December 29, with Chelsea coming back with two late goals to win 2-1 at Arsenal in Mikel Arteta’s home debut as coach of the Gunners.

  • ‘Qabr mein sakoon?’ Twitter asks PM after ‘400% increase’ in death certificate cost

    ‘Qabr mein sakoon?’ Twitter asks PM after ‘400% increase’ in death certificate cost

    The cost of death certificate has reportedly been increased by 400 per cent, compelling netizens to take to Twitter and call out the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan-led government in light of a statement by the premier from last week.

    According to a private media outlet, the cost of death certificate has been increased from Rs300 to Rs1,200. The hike comes a week after PM Imran said that life was not a fairy tale, and “one gets peace only in his or her grave”.

    With the increase in death certificate’s cost making headlines, Twitterati took to the social network to ask if “death actually is when one gets peace”.

    Meanwhile, some pointed out that the deceased would actually be resting in peace and the hike would only be a problem for his or her survivours.

    “Happily ever after is a myth. It’s there only in fairy tales. In real life, one gets peace only when he or she lies in their grave,” the premier had said last Friday as he addressed the inauguration ceremony of a skills development programme called “Hunarmand”.

    It wasn’t later that his statements broke the internet as a majority trolled him, and some criticised his government for its “flawed” policies.

    The Current is attempting to independently verify the report pertaining to the increase in cost of death certificates

  • ‘#PTIDisrespectsArmy’: Military unhappy with Vawda over shoe stunt?

    ‘#PTIDisrespectsArmy’: Military unhappy with Vawda over shoe stunt?

    Opposition parties, military personnel as well as the general public appear to be unhappy with Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda, who on Tuesday night used a boot on-air to heap scorn on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for voting in favour of the recently passed Army Act.

    The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader had a day earlier appeared on a talk show alongside PML-N leader Javed Abbasi and PPP’s Qamar Zaman Kaira. Mid-programme, while discussing PML-N supremo and former premier Nawaz Sharif, Vawda pulled out a boot and plonked it on the desk in front of the guests to troll their respective parties.

    The little stunt was followed by both Abbasi and Kaira walking out in protest.

    With Vawda making headlines for his gimmick, criticism by netizens, including leaders of opposition parties, military personnel and general public, started pouring in. Here’s what they had to say:

    Meanwhile, a “soldier” wrote:

    PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb has also said that Vawda’s stunt “did not dignify a response”, while her colleague Rana Sanaullah has said that the entire nation was witnessing activities of “jokers”.

    “The government wants to make a joke of the army as an institution,” he has said.