okay thank you very much for the kind
introduction and thank you for having me
here so we saw the video earlier that
talked about the internet about
technology and I’m just gonna ask a very
silly question how many of you here have
smartphones I’d be surprised if I didn’t
see any arms raised right so all of us
pretty much it’s become a cliche that
all our life revolves around that one
device that we always carry with
ourselves that we check every few
minutes that goes everywhere with us
sleeps with us monitors our activity our
communication and everything right so
gone are the days when you needed a
computer you needed to sit on a desk and
work for me myself I I write I do a lot
of different work and most of it
revolves around my phone there’s barely
ever at you know time when I’d pick up
my computer only once twice or thrice in
a week at maximum right so now because
technology is so accessible because
smart phones have become so affordable
and internet data has become so
affordable for us on an increasing
number of people are connected worldwide
to the Internet but we never take a step
back and think about this new technology
that’s entered our lives what are our
rights regarding this technology what
are our rights revolving around the
internet what are we allowed to do and
what are we not allowed to do why are we
not allowed to do that and who controls
this what are the laws around this and
do we deserve such laws do we deserve
more privacy or do we deserve more
security on the Internet so these are
the things I’ll be talking to you about
today so I’ll be touching upon three
fundamental rights that also our
Constitution guarantees so I’ll be
talking to you about the right to
privacy which is protected by article 14
of the
Hasani Constitution I’ll be talking to
you about the right to freedom of speech
which is protected by article 19 of the
Constitution I’ll be talking to you
about the right to information which is
protected by article 19 a but I won’t
just be talking to you about the laws
around this I’ll be talking to you about
how our use of the internet everyday
relates to these rights and how many
times are these rights being violated by
governments by companies and by other
individuals and what we can do to
protect these rights of ours or what
measures we can take to minimize the
violation of these rights on the
Internet so I’ll be starting off with a
one of the fundamental rights which is
the right to privacy now under this the
right to privacy what is privacy when I
explained it to once I was teaching very
little case there were middle school
primary school children about privacy
and I told them okay what is privacy and
they’re like you know when you want to
hide something and I said yes
when you for example use the bathroom
why’d you close the door right and they
all giggled and they said oh because of
privacy right so it’s as simple as that
it’s your personal space it’s your
personal information that belongs to you
and that you want to be protected if
you’re talking to two friends do you
want other people listening in between
or if you’re talking to your family do
you want anyone snooping on you or not
right when you put out your information
do you want companies to be picking that
information up and selling it or not
these are the things that we need to be
asking ourselves when we use the
internet today because recently with the
Cambridge analytical leaks we found out
that seventy or I think it was around 90
million Facebook profiles personal
information was sold off to PR companies
that then use that personal information
to target ads towards those Facebook
users in order to target manipulative
political messaging because this company
Cambridge analytic ah was hired by
political parties in a range of
different countries in order to
manipulate elections and they will show
you our ads based on your browsing
history based on your personal
information and based on the views you
express on social media and using that
information they would
Tayler videos and ads on your profile
that you will see that can have an
manipulative impact but such companies
and such people politically also use
fake news which is a huge phenomena
today there’s so many fake accounts on
Twitter on Facebook on Instagram and
different social media platforms that
spread out fake news every day I’m sure
you also hear your father telling you oh
look at this video or look at this news
I just got this forward on this whatsapp
group of you know my friends that oh the
Jordan Queen has died you know or Oh a
nuclear bomb is exploded but what is
that there’s a lot of fake news going on
and there are some facts that do seem
like fake news you’ll be like this is
too absurd this can’t be happening but a
lot of it sound very real and what do we
do we believe it and we forward it but
what is that doing that’s damaging the
truth and that’s damaging the way we
live and the way we think and that is a
major cost of Technology so what can you
do to combat fake news first of all be
responsible but news that you get
yourself before forwarding it verified
right check what the source of this
information is double check it on the
internet before you forward it but on a
larger scale base your opinions based
your views not based on just hearsay but
on solid research because technology
makes it very easy for us to believe
things because in our whatsapp inbox or
in our Facebook feed
we’re getting so much information and
we’re falling for it and that is
compromising our right to information
because the right to information is not
right to disinformation or
misinformation it’s right to truthful
information and if there’s loopholes in
the technology that allow for this to
happen something needs to be done about
this right furthermore within right to
privacy is also the issue of
cyberbullying and of harassment now
every day life we do face a lot of
incidents that can count as harassment
but what is harassment on the Internet a
very famous case came about in Pakistan
a few days ago of a friend request that
a doctor sent to a woman after examining
her and there’s a huge debate about what
is
harassment and what constitutes as
harassment right but at the end of the
day just look at the online world not as
a separate world but as an extension of
your real world so if take the offline
equal situation of what is happening
online the interactions that you’re
having online would you allow those to
happen in your personal life in a real
life setting or not and that is where
technology can start making sense to us
because for the longest time we’ve been
looking at the internet as another world
where we say in real life IRL that’s
real life and the internet is not real
life it’s just the Internet but that is
not true the Internet is real life we
are communicating through internet we
are getting information from the
internet so it is as real as it gets and
hence it is important for us to take
things that happen online seriously if
people are getting threats online if
people are getting harassed online if
people are getting bullied online if
people are being made fun of through
anonymous groups online that is a
problem and these are violations of
Rights that we start to need to start
taking seriously and we need to take
steps to improve them so how can we do
that right so before I get it to what
steps we should do I want to talk to you
about another very important right and
that’s the right to freedom of speech
now before the internet came about how
did we get our information it was
through the TV through radio through
newspapers there were editors who were
okaying news reports there were
journalists who were going out and
getting information but now we live in
an era of citizen journalism we’re on
Twitter and on Facebook anyone can post
anything through blogs and through
information and that is what our source
of information whereas there might be
some risks and harms of it it’s also
very very empowering in areas where you
do not have media access such as areas
in Balochistan or the federally trajo
administered tribal areas Fattah or
gilgit-baltistan where TV may OpCo you
never hear about these areas now through
the internet and through social media
people who’ve been ignored for too long
are finding a voice and they’re
mobilizing and they’re able to present
their point of view to you instead of
you listening to the propaganda of the
state and news organizations telling you
how people live what they are what you
should think about them and what wrongs
they’re doing now you’re finding out
that no not everyone in Fattah is a
terrorist or oh not everyone in
Balochistan is an Indian agent or not
everyone in Kashmir is a certain way now
you’re finding out that just like over
here in Islamabad Lahore are in large
cities you have diversity you have good
and bad people you have good and bad
people everywhere and you’re finding out
through social media through trends that
people are able to express these
feelings about what they feel is going
right and what they feel is going wrong
and that is a great thing right because
now you’re able to connect with people
and it’s not just within your country
it’s outside your country also now you
will find out that not every Indian is
your enemy there could be people you
could get along with and now you find
out that in America not everyone hates
their family people live with families
and have family values also as opposed
to what we’re told for a long time so
the point is that the freedom of
expression and the right of freedom of
speech that you get on the Internet is
able to connect us to people is able to
break those stereotypes about others and
is able to tell us that what
preconceived notions and stereotypes we
hold about people are not entirely true
but also it is giving a voice to people
who’ve been oppressed for too long it’s
able to bring to the fore a lot of good
information that you might have not
gotten before but how are these rights
being violated how is your right to
information being violated what is the
right to information like I said before
it’s the right to access information
unfiltered and you as the citizen as an
adult should have the decision to decide
what is true and what is not and what
what access what information you should
be able to access and what information
you don’t want to access right but in
light of all of this there’s big
business corporations such as Facebook
and Google who are deciding what you
will see in your news fields right then
there’s censorship from international
and local and national governments and
at the same time there’s also a lot of
threats going out to people we’ve seen
bloggers going missing we’ve seen a lot
of newspaper articles being taken
of the internet why because they
criticize the state policy and the state
does not want you to hear the other side
right so while we are getting empowered
through the internet and through social
media there’s also a pushback from
states around the world that are trying
to stop people from getting empowered
and stop people to get to know what is
actually happening why because when
people have that access to information
when people have the right of freedom of
speech they will speak up speak the
truth and sometimes that will go against
the corruption of the government
sometimes I will go against the
oppression that the state does and
sometimes I will go against the
corporate interests of large businesses
so all the more reasons that citizens
today need to be mindful of what their
rights are and we need to push for these
rights to be protected so how can we
protect our rights on the Internet
right so first of all we can make use of
the protection of the Constitution you
have laws and you have rights that
actually tell you that this is what
you’re entitled to do these are the
right to information expression of
privacy that you’re entitled to and
these cannot be broken so when you argue
about this you should make use of the
laws that exist the issue in our country
is that people do not know their rights
and people do not know about the laws so
if we know about the rights and we know
about the Lord’s will be able to be more
active citizens and not be controlled by
corporations or by States right or that
information we control and we need to
keep pushing for a narrative for
policies that center around human
security yes national security is
important but at the same time that
security need to be refocused on human
beings as well what is the point of a
state of borders that are protected if
human beings within that country are not
protected in various ways if they do not
have access to basic rights right so
this stage needs to prioritize the
people first also and that’s something
we need to start pushing towards because
what why should we push it be pushing
towards a human security state why
should we pushing towards an internet
that is open or pushing towards
information that we access because we
want to access it because at the end of
the day how does the state run it is
through our taxes
that this state runs and it’s true our
votes that a government is elected so we
are the owners of this state and we are
the ones who should be able to decide
what we’re able to do and what were not
able to do as long as we do not harm
another individual so at the end of the
day because we run the state through our
taxes because we elect the government
through our votes we should be the ones
who decide what information we access on
the internet instead of being dictated
by this state that this is what you can
access and this you can’t and I’m
talking about censorship here at the
same time we should be able to express
our opinions about what we think is
right and what we think is wrong because
at the end of the day we are the
citizens and it is our country so we
need to take ownership of where we live
and when we take ownership of it and we
express what is right we express what is
wrong that’s the more patriotic thing we
can do because why we are Pakistanis and
we believe that what the government or
what the state is doing is not right why
should we be scared of speaking up why
should we be scared of becoming a
missing blogger of or a dead journalist
we should not because at the end of the
day it is our country and it’s our duty
as citizens of this country to express
ourselves and to express that yes this
policy of the government is not okay it
needs to change right or this
information needs to be accessed and for
that we need to start taking a standard
it has to start with the empowering
medium of technology also because now we
can reach out a large number of
audiences just through our own agency
and without depending on anybody else so
that is why we need to fight for
protecting our rights on the Internet
thank you [Applause]
introduction and thank you for having me
here so we saw the video earlier that
talked about the internet about
technology and I’m just gonna ask a very
silly question how many of you here have
smartphones I’d be surprised if I didn’t
see any arms raised right so all of us
pretty much it’s become a cliche that
all our life revolves around that one
device that we always carry with
ourselves that we check every few
minutes that goes everywhere with us
sleeps with us monitors our activity our
communication and everything right so
gone are the days when you needed a
computer you needed to sit on a desk and
work for me myself I I write I do a lot
of different work and most of it
revolves around my phone there’s barely
ever at you know time when I’d pick up
my computer only once twice or thrice in
a week at maximum right so now because
technology is so accessible because
smart phones have become so affordable
and internet data has become so
affordable for us on an increasing
number of people are connected worldwide
to the Internet but we never take a step
back and think about this new technology
that’s entered our lives what are our
rights regarding this technology what
are our rights revolving around the
internet what are we allowed to do and
what are we not allowed to do why are we
not allowed to do that and who controls
this what are the laws around this and
do we deserve such laws do we deserve
more privacy or do we deserve more
security on the Internet so these are
the things I’ll be talking to you about
today so I’ll be touching upon three
fundamental rights that also our
Constitution guarantees so I’ll be
talking to you about the right to
privacy which is protected by article 14
of the
Hasani Constitution I’ll be talking to
you about the right to freedom of speech
which is protected by article 19 of the
Constitution I’ll be talking to you
about the right to information which is
protected by article 19 a but I won’t
just be talking to you about the laws
around this I’ll be talking to you about
how our use of the internet everyday
relates to these rights and how many
times are these rights being violated by
governments by companies and by other
individuals and what we can do to
protect these rights of ours or what
measures we can take to minimize the
violation of these rights on the
Internet so I’ll be starting off with a
one of the fundamental rights which is
the right to privacy now under this the
right to privacy what is privacy when I
explained it to once I was teaching very
little case there were middle school
primary school children about privacy
and I told them okay what is privacy and
they’re like you know when you want to
hide something and I said yes
when you for example use the bathroom
why’d you close the door right and they
all giggled and they said oh because of
privacy right so it’s as simple as that
it’s your personal space it’s your
personal information that belongs to you
and that you want to be protected if
you’re talking to two friends do you
want other people listening in between
or if you’re talking to your family do
you want anyone snooping on you or not
right when you put out your information
do you want companies to be picking that
information up and selling it or not
these are the things that we need to be
asking ourselves when we use the
internet today because recently with the
Cambridge analytical leaks we found out
that seventy or I think it was around 90
million Facebook profiles personal
information was sold off to PR companies
that then use that personal information
to target ads towards those Facebook
users in order to target manipulative
political messaging because this company
Cambridge analytic ah was hired by
political parties in a range of
different countries in order to
manipulate elections and they will show
you our ads based on your browsing
history based on your personal
information and based on the views you
express on social media and using that
information they would
Tayler videos and ads on your profile
that you will see that can have an
manipulative impact but such companies
and such people politically also use
fake news which is a huge phenomena
today there’s so many fake accounts on
Twitter on Facebook on Instagram and
different social media platforms that
spread out fake news every day I’m sure
you also hear your father telling you oh
look at this video or look at this news
I just got this forward on this whatsapp
group of you know my friends that oh the
Jordan Queen has died you know or Oh a
nuclear bomb is exploded but what is
that there’s a lot of fake news going on
and there are some facts that do seem
like fake news you’ll be like this is
too absurd this can’t be happening but a
lot of it sound very real and what do we
do we believe it and we forward it but
what is that doing that’s damaging the
truth and that’s damaging the way we
live and the way we think and that is a
major cost of Technology so what can you
do to combat fake news first of all be
responsible but news that you get
yourself before forwarding it verified
right check what the source of this
information is double check it on the
internet before you forward it but on a
larger scale base your opinions based
your views not based on just hearsay but
on solid research because technology
makes it very easy for us to believe
things because in our whatsapp inbox or
in our Facebook feed
we’re getting so much information and
we’re falling for it and that is
compromising our right to information
because the right to information is not
right to disinformation or
misinformation it’s right to truthful
information and if there’s loopholes in
the technology that allow for this to
happen something needs to be done about
this right furthermore within right to
privacy is also the issue of
cyberbullying and of harassment now
every day life we do face a lot of
incidents that can count as harassment
but what is harassment on the Internet a
very famous case came about in Pakistan
a few days ago of a friend request that
a doctor sent to a woman after examining
her and there’s a huge debate about what
is
harassment and what constitutes as
harassment right but at the end of the
day just look at the online world not as
a separate world but as an extension of
your real world so if take the offline
equal situation of what is happening
online the interactions that you’re
having online would you allow those to
happen in your personal life in a real
life setting or not and that is where
technology can start making sense to us
because for the longest time we’ve been
looking at the internet as another world
where we say in real life IRL that’s
real life and the internet is not real
life it’s just the Internet but that is
not true the Internet is real life we
are communicating through internet we
are getting information from the
internet so it is as real as it gets and
hence it is important for us to take
things that happen online seriously if
people are getting threats online if
people are getting harassed online if
people are getting bullied online if
people are being made fun of through
anonymous groups online that is a
problem and these are violations of
Rights that we start to need to start
taking seriously and we need to take
steps to improve them so how can we do
that right so before I get it to what
steps we should do I want to talk to you
about another very important right and
that’s the right to freedom of speech
now before the internet came about how
did we get our information it was
through the TV through radio through
newspapers there were editors who were
okaying news reports there were
journalists who were going out and
getting information but now we live in
an era of citizen journalism we’re on
Twitter and on Facebook anyone can post
anything through blogs and through
information and that is what our source
of information whereas there might be
some risks and harms of it it’s also
very very empowering in areas where you
do not have media access such as areas
in Balochistan or the federally trajo
administered tribal areas Fattah or
gilgit-baltistan where TV may OpCo you
never hear about these areas now through
the internet and through social media
people who’ve been ignored for too long
are finding a voice and they’re
mobilizing and they’re able to present
their point of view to you instead of
you listening to the propaganda of the
state and news organizations telling you
how people live what they are what you
should think about them and what wrongs
they’re doing now you’re finding out
that no not everyone in Fattah is a
terrorist or oh not everyone in
Balochistan is an Indian agent or not
everyone in Kashmir is a certain way now
you’re finding out that just like over
here in Islamabad Lahore are in large
cities you have diversity you have good
and bad people you have good and bad
people everywhere and you’re finding out
through social media through trends that
people are able to express these
feelings about what they feel is going
right and what they feel is going wrong
and that is a great thing right because
now you’re able to connect with people
and it’s not just within your country
it’s outside your country also now you
will find out that not every Indian is
your enemy there could be people you
could get along with and now you find
out that in America not everyone hates
their family people live with families
and have family values also as opposed
to what we’re told for a long time so
the point is that the freedom of
expression and the right of freedom of
speech that you get on the Internet is
able to connect us to people is able to
break those stereotypes about others and
is able to tell us that what
preconceived notions and stereotypes we
hold about people are not entirely true
but also it is giving a voice to people
who’ve been oppressed for too long it’s
able to bring to the fore a lot of good
information that you might have not
gotten before but how are these rights
being violated how is your right to
information being violated what is the
right to information like I said before
it’s the right to access information
unfiltered and you as the citizen as an
adult should have the decision to decide
what is true and what is not and what
what access what information you should
be able to access and what information
you don’t want to access right but in
light of all of this there’s big
business corporations such as Facebook
and Google who are deciding what you
will see in your news fields right then
there’s censorship from international
and local and national governments and
at the same time there’s also a lot of
threats going out to people we’ve seen
bloggers going missing we’ve seen a lot
of newspaper articles being taken
of the internet why because they
criticize the state policy and the state
does not want you to hear the other side
right so while we are getting empowered
through the internet and through social
media there’s also a pushback from
states around the world that are trying
to stop people from getting empowered
and stop people to get to know what is
actually happening why because when
people have that access to information
when people have the right of freedom of
speech they will speak up speak the
truth and sometimes that will go against
the corruption of the government
sometimes I will go against the
oppression that the state does and
sometimes I will go against the
corporate interests of large businesses
so all the more reasons that citizens
today need to be mindful of what their
rights are and we need to push for these
rights to be protected so how can we
protect our rights on the Internet
right so first of all we can make use of
the protection of the Constitution you
have laws and you have rights that
actually tell you that this is what
you’re entitled to do these are the
right to information expression of
privacy that you’re entitled to and
these cannot be broken so when you argue
about this you should make use of the
laws that exist the issue in our country
is that people do not know their rights
and people do not know about the laws so
if we know about the rights and we know
about the Lord’s will be able to be more
active citizens and not be controlled by
corporations or by States right or that
information we control and we need to
keep pushing for a narrative for
policies that center around human
security yes national security is
important but at the same time that
security need to be refocused on human
beings as well what is the point of a
state of borders that are protected if
human beings within that country are not
protected in various ways if they do not
have access to basic rights right so
this stage needs to prioritize the
people first also and that’s something
we need to start pushing towards because
what why should we push it be pushing
towards a human security state why
should we pushing towards an internet
that is open or pushing towards
information that we access because we
want to access it because at the end of
the day how does the state run it is
through our taxes
that this state runs and it’s true our
votes that a government is elected so we
are the owners of this state and we are
the ones who should be able to decide
what we’re able to do and what were not
able to do as long as we do not harm
another individual so at the end of the
day because we run the state through our
taxes because we elect the government
through our votes we should be the ones
who decide what information we access on
the internet instead of being dictated
by this state that this is what you can
access and this you can’t and I’m
talking about censorship here at the
same time we should be able to express
our opinions about what we think is
right and what we think is wrong because
at the end of the day we are the
citizens and it is our country so we
need to take ownership of where we live
and when we take ownership of it and we
express what is right we express what is
wrong that’s the more patriotic thing we
can do because why we are Pakistanis and
we believe that what the government or
what the state is doing is not right why
should we be scared of speaking up why
should we be scared of becoming a
missing blogger of or a dead journalist
we should not because at the end of the
day it is our country and it’s our duty
as citizens of this country to express
ourselves and to express that yes this
policy of the government is not okay it
needs to change right or this
information needs to be accessed and for
that we need to start taking a standard
it has to start with the empowering
medium of technology also because now we
can reach out a large number of
audiences just through our own agency
and without depending on anybody else so
that is why we need to fight for
protecting our rights on the Internet
thank you [Applause]
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