On 23 January 2025, the Pakistan parliament amended the 2016 cybercrimes law, known as the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA). The PECA Amendment Act 2025 created a new penal offense of intentional distribution and sharing of false information, with a penalty of up to three years in jail and fines of up to 2 million Pakistani Rupees. The amendment also provides for new types of online content that are prohibited and or blocked including false information and defamatory content especially in relation to representatives of the executive, judiciary, legislature and the armed forces. The Act establishes a number of new government agencies and tribunals to enforce content blocking and prosecute criminal cases and was passed without any serious consultation with relevant stakeholders.
The PECA Amendment Act 2025 equips the government with the wide-reaching powers to control online content and, in the process, violates the freedom of speech, press freedom, and digital rights. The lack of clarity in the laws and the possibility of their arbitrary application conflict with the principles of proportionality and necessity that are part of international human rights law. Additionally, the penalties provided for by the law have provoked fear and self-censorship among various participants, thus going against democratic principles and the basic right to free speech. Civil society and journalist and media organizations have expressed concern that the law may be misused to silence dissent, which will in turn lead to less investigative journalism and a denial of the right of the public to know.
The implementation of the PECA Amendment Act 2025 is part of a general trend of laws that have progressively taken away civil rights to free speech and freedom of expression over the last year. This trend includes significant actions such as the ban on Twitter (now X) during the February 2024 general elections, which continues until today. The amendment also coincides with the restriction of internet freedoms in the country, with the government admitting to using a ‘web management system’ with deep packet inspection for surveillance and frequent reports of the government throttling Internet access to stifle political activism.
The amendment also coincides with the restriction of internet freedoms in the country in 2024, with the government admitting to using a ‘web management system’ with deep packet inspection for surveillance, the continued domestic ban on the X network (previously Twitter), and frequent reports of the government throttling Internet access to stifle political activism.
The PFUJ, the country’s biggest journalist union has gone to court over the PECA amendment and has called for a countrywide protest. Newspaper editors and publishers and TV news channel owners have also come up with a united front against the development. Other legal challenges to the constitutionality of the PECA amendment have been filed in other courts. Lawyers say the amendment is inconsistent with Article 19 of Pakistan’s constitution, which allows for freedom of speech, within reasonable limits.