DRF made a civil society submission report to the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) for its second state review of Pakistan’s progress under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) obligations. The ICCPR commits nations to respect civil and political rights, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of peaceful assembly, electoral rights and rights to due process. DRF raised serious concerns about Pakistan’s growing censorship and restrictive laws that endanger free speech, privacy, and press freedom, especially for journalists. Read more here.

Policy Initiatives:

Campaign on Cybersecurity Awareness Month (October)

DRF raised awareness about different cybersecurity concerns in honour of Cybersecurity Awareness Month. These ranged from access control, device security, safe browsing, email and social media security, to social engineering attacks and opting out of Meta AI.

Campaign on International Day of the Girl Child (11 October)

In honor of International Day of the Girl Child, DRF ran polls and open-ended questions to engage with girls in Pakistan directly and ask them about their experience of online spaces, emphasizing the need to empower girls with digital literacy and let them lead the way.

Campaign  on Global Encryption Day (21 October)

DRF Executive Director Nighat Dad talked about the importance of global encryption for Global Encryption Day, highlighting the importance of encryption to our right of privacy in online spaces.

 

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Press Coverage:

Nighat Dad  highlights platform accountability on AJ Stream

DRF Executive Director Nighat Dad shared her views with AJ Stream on platform accountability and preventing the accumulation of power in the hands of the few. A multi-stakeholder approach is essential, especially voices from global majority countries.

Watch the entire segment here

 

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Op-eds on Social Media Disinformation and Internet Freedom

DRF Executive Director Nighat Dad and Senior Research Associate Adnan A. Chaudhri published an op-ed on the role of social media platforms in amplifying disinformation, specifically in the context of harassment allegations that surfaced online related to a female student of Punjab Group of Colleges. These allegations, suspected to be disinformation, sparked campus-wide protests and retaliatory police violence.

Another op-ed published by the DRF team (Executive Director Nighat Dad and Programs Lead Seerat Khan) was on Pakistan’s ranking as second among nine countries that imposed internet and platform restrictions in this year’s Freedom on the Net report.

DRF was also mentioned in the press in the following articles:

Date	Title	Link
6 Oct	Pakistan's Kafkaeaque Identity Problem	https://www.dawn.com/news/1863377/pakistans-kafkaesque-identity-problem
11 Oct	TikTok commits to supporting its community’s mental well-being	https://tradechronicle.com/tiktok-commits-to-supporting-its-communitys-mental-well-being/#google_vignette
12 Oct	Tiktok partners with Headspace to promote mental health awareness	https://tribune.com.pk/story/2502308/tiktok-partners-with-headspace-to-promote-mental-health-awareness#google_vignette
22 Oct	Caught in the web: Surveillance, data protection and AI in Pakistan	https://www.dawn.com/news/1864073/caught-in-the-web-surveillance-data-protection-and-ai-in-pakistan
24 Oct	The Flip Face of AI	https://www.thenews.com.pk/magazine/you/1244134-the-flip-face-of-ai

 

Events:

Gendered Disinformation in South Asia: Findings and Policy recommendations

On 29 October, DRF participated in an online seminar focused on gendered disinformation in South Asia. DRF Program Lead Seerat Khan and Cyber Harassment Helpline Manager Hyra Basit presented insights from DRF’s in-depth research on gendered disinformation in Pakistan, based on two years of data collection and annotation. DRF Executive Director Nighat Dad delivered the keynote address, emphasizing the critical need for platform accountability and transparency in addressing gendered disinformation across South Asia.

 

Asia Regional Symposium on Tech-Facilitated Gender Based Violence by UNFPA and Australia e-Commission

DRF participated in a symposium on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) hosted by UNFPA on 15 October 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand. The event highlighted the impact of AI and TFGBV, particularly in the Global South. DRF Executive Director Nighat Dad provided an overview of DRF's work in addressing TFGBV and highlighted the rise in AI-generated image abuse and gendered disinformation campaigns. DRF Legal Manager Irum Shujah discussed DRF’s commitment to closely monitor processes at the High-Level Advisory Board, and elaborated on the pros and cons of AI from a South Asian perspective, emphasizing the need for equitable digital spaces in light of international legislation.

Digital Literacy and Citizenship Bootcamp at Women University, Multan

DRF conducted its 4th Digital Literacy and Citizenship Bootcamp for 52 students at the Women University in Multan, with the support of the U.S. Embassy, Islamabad. The students learnt about cyber harassment, online safety safety, disinformation and misinformation in today’s digital ecosystem, as well as the emergence of AI and LLMs in online and offline spaces.

Other events:

• DRF was invited to attend the Meta APAC AI Literacy and Safety Summit in Singapore on 29-30 October. DRF shared its insights on how genAI contributes to TFGBV, with data analytics from the Cyber Harassment Helpline.
• As part of the UN’s Global Media and Information Literacy Week, DRF Programs Lead Seerat Khan spoke at an online panel titled Media Literacy in the Age of Disinformation: Impact of Misinformation on Society & the Importance of Media Literacy.
• DRF held a two-day digital skills training workshop in Lahore as part of its ongoing series aimed at empowering individuals from at-risk communities and professions. The training covered key digital safety practices and introduced participants to various open-source tools.

New tech and platform developments:

X shares user data in new privacy policy: Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has prepared a new privacy policy set to take effect on 15 November 2024. Under this policy, the platform will be able to share user data with third parties for training artificial intelligence (AI) models. This policy will allow any company to access licensed data from X for a fee.

Tip of the month (digital security):

Whenever you communicate on the internet, consider your security, especially when sharing sensitive or confidential information. Use encryption to protect your data. For secure messaging, consider using Signal over WhatsApp or Telegram, and for email, try ProtonMail instead of Gmail.

Cyber Harassment Helpline:

The Cyber Harassment Helpline received 211 complaints in total in October 2024, with  151 complaints by women.

If you’re encountering a problem online, you can reach out to our helpline at 0800-39393, email us at [email protected] or reach out to us on our social media accounts. We’re available for assistance from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Sunday.

 

 

 

 

 

DRF Resources:

IWF Portal

DRF in collaboration with Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and the Global Fund to End Violence Against Children launched a portal to combat children’s online safety in Pakistan. The new portal allows internet users in Pakistan to anonymously report child sexual abuse material in three different languages- English, Urdu, and Pashto.

www.report.iwf.org.uk/pk

StopNCII.org

Meta along with Revenge Porn Helpline (RPH) has launched a portal to support victims of Non-Consensual Intimate Image Abuse (NCII). NCII is a free portal for reporting cases of sensitive or sexual content existing online. Once you report a case, the necessary steps will be taken to block the images from the platform.

https://stopncii.org/