Pakistan has ordered tech giant Google and the world’s largest wiki portal Wikipedia to remove ‘blasphemous content’ by the minority Ahmadiyya community, which the Islamic republic deems as a heretic sect.
In a statement, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said Friday that it took the step after receiving complaints against misleading search results associated with “Present Khalifa of Islam” and an unauthentic version of the Holy Quran which had been uploaded on Google’s Play Store by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
The PTA said that the matter being of a “very serious nature”, it has approached Google and directed the company to immediately remove the “unlawful content”. The telecommunication authority also served a notice to Wikipedia, ordering it to remove articles that portray the Ahmadiyya leader, Mirza Masroor Ahmad as a Muslim.
The PTA said it would be constrained to initiate further action under Preventions of Electronic Crimes Act 2016(PECA) and Rules 20202″ if the platforms remain non-compliant.
Press Release: PTA issues Notices to Google Inc. and Wikipedia on account of disseminating sacrilegious content through the platforms. pic.twitter.com/AhG9PHCJS1
— PTA (@PTAofficialpk) December 25, 2020