The minister said it was encouraging to find out that we share common grounds to deal with hate speech and related content that leads to violence in the society. "We believe in the freedom of expression and free speech," he said.
"Our only concern is to defy hate speech and blasphemous content that incites violence," he said while explaining government approach on social media.
Simon Milner underlined the need for coordination between the government and Facebook, to encourage expression and create a safe environment as Facebook is a global platform that gives more than two billion people globally the opportunity to connect and share.
"We have clear rules against hate speech and content that has the potential to incite violence, and share the same commitment to remove such content in Pakistan, and globally," Milner said. Fawad proposed Facebook to have an official operational unit in Pakistan. "We will facilitate the office entity with the best available protocols," he added. Milner, expressed Facebook's commitment to helping its community, including small businesses and developers, in Pakistan connect, share and grow.
Earlier this year, Facebook committed to train 20,000 women entrepreneurs across 150 women empowerment centres in Pakistan, in collaboration with the Universal Service Fund Company, and its Developer Circles have a thriving community of 7,800 developer community members across Islamabad, Lahore, Sahiwal, Gujrat and Faisalabad, he informed.
Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications Khalid Maqbool Siddique was also present during the meeting.
The meeting was attended by information and broadcasting, information and technology secretaries, PTA chairman, PID Islamabad Principal Information Officer, Representative from ISPR and other senior officials of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.