Pak asks global tech firms to block accounts of banned outfits

Pakistan urged global social media companies to take action to block hundreds of accounts allegedly run by outlawed militant groups that Islamabad claims spread propaganda and glorify insurgents in the South Asian country.

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While addressing a joint press conference with Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry, Minister of State for Law and Justice Barrister Ageel Malik said the government identified and reported at least 481 accounts associated with proscribed terrorist groups on various platforms.

According to Talal Chaudhry, groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army — banned by the Pakistani authorities and also designated as terrorist groups by the United States — have been using X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram to promote violence in Pakistan. Chaudhry, who spoke to reporters at a news conference, urged the tech companies to remove or disable these accounts, as well as those run by supporters of the militant groups. Chaudhry said the identified accounts were being operated under anonymous names and unverified IDs. He noted that all the accounts belonged to terrorist groups and said that Pakistan was unaware of their exact origins. The government, he said, was seeking information from platform operators to help dismantle these online networks, adding that Pakistan remained a wall between terrorism and the world.