PAKISTAN'S INTERNET LANDSCAPE 2018 A REPORTC BY BYTES FOR ALL, PAKISTAN Author: Jahanzaib Haque (
[email protected]) Research Assistant: ShahBano Ali Khan Design: Alyna Butt (
[email protected]) C 03 TABLE OF CONTENTS 06 INTERNET ACCESS 15 GOVERNANCE AND CRIME 23 BLASPHEMY 30 CHILD PORNOGRAPHY 36 CYBERCRIME 40 DATA PROTECTION AND PRIVACY 45 CENSORSHIP AND MEDIA 52 GENERAL ELECTIONS 58 FAKE NEWS 66 FIN-TECH AND BRANCHLESS BANKING C 73 E-COMMERCE GG PREFACE 04 PREFACE The fourth edition of “Internet Landscape of Pakistan” is an exhaustive mapping of the digital trends that not only impact citizens’ social, economic and political rights, but also determines how responsive and ecient the government is in addressing peoples’ problems. This report, we hope, would be useful for media professionals, policy makers, civil society, academia, UN special mandate holders and International development partners. The report comes at a time when Pakistan, like many other countries in Asia specifically, is witnessing a tense struggle between a vibrant civil society and an oppressive, coercive and controlling polity. Over the year, since the last edition of this report was published, Pakistan has faced far greater control over free expression, increased censorship, secrecy of public policy decision-making, and violation of fundamental freedoms of citizens. It is noteworthy that since 2013, when the first edition of Internet Landscape of Pakistan came out, the usage of internet by the state and citizenry has increased manifold. Almost all organs of the state are visibly more concerned about what is said on the internet about them and of the services they deliver to the public.