Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday ordered that "blasphemous" content on social media websites be removed or blocked and those posting such material "strictly punished." "Effective steps must be taken immediately to remove and block such content," the prime minister said in a statement. He instructed Pakistan's foreign ministry to contact international foreign social media firms and demand the blocking of blasphemous posts. He did not mention any company by name, but social networks such as Facebook Inc, its Instagram unit and rival Twitter Inc are popular in Pakistan. When a group of five liberal activists went missing earlier this year, they were accused by religious hardliners of blasphemy.

Source: Egypt Independent March 14, 2017 18:00 UTC