The minister says authorities traced the fake accounts and actively reported them to the platforms concerned.
Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry. Photo: File
Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry has accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of carrying out what he described as a targeted propaganda campaign on social media for a prolonged period. However, he insisted that freedom of expression must be exercised within the limits of the Constitution and the law.
“Every post, every tweet and every trend is paid for,” he said at a press conference in Islamabad on Monday, adding that most of these accounts were created using fake identities and were not managed from Pakistan.
He further said that fake social media accounts, many operated from abroad, are being used to spread content against Pakistan, with payments being made for tweets and coordinated online trends.
The minister said he would present documents and evidence during the briefing, clarifying that these were not government-generated documents but data provided by the social media platforms themselves.
“Most of these accounts are run from abroad. These are fake accounts created under fake names, and all this evidence was obtained from social media platforms,” he said.
Chaudhry claimed that authorities had traced the accounts involved and that institutions were actively reporting fake accounts to the relevant platforms. He said the companies hosting these platforms are also based abroad.
He further alleged that content shared through these accounts was used to support militant groups including the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). “We have been fighting terrorists for a long time and are on the frontline against terrorism, but these fake accounts are being used to support the BLA and TTP,” he said.
The Interior Ministry will continue its efforts to combat online disinformation and what it calls organized digital campaigns aimed at undermining national security, it added.
