ISLAMABAD: While Twitter and Facebook have expressed their inability to set up their offices in Pakistan in the near future, the world’s largest search engine and video sharing platform Google is all set to open its liaison office in Pakistan.
IT and Telecom Minister Syed Aminul Haq announced on Friday that the global company has already registered itself as a company in Pakistan.
“A Google delegation is coming to Pakistan from Singapore early next week and the company is likely to announce the setting up of a functional office here,” Mr Haq told JEE News.
He also revealed that Tik Tok has also agreed to set up a liaison office in Pakistan.
However, Google has already taken the lead in this regard and the company is already registered in the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Karachi registry.
The registration is the first step towards setting up an office, which is one of the requirements under the Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Monitoring and Security) Rules 2021.
Industry sources say that Twitter,
Meta are still torn over conflicting policies.
Social media platforms have to abide by the laws and norms of Pakistan after being registered and opening offices.
The laws also require social media platforms to keep their “servers” in Pakistan to ensure that data is secure. Currently, data for all platforms is stored outside the country.
The IT minister has recently expressed confidence that more social media platforms will set up offices in Pakistan, but industry sources say Twitter and Meta have so far been hesitant.
A senior executive of one of the telecom companies in the country said that both Twitter and Meta are going through some fundamental structural changes, and have laid off a large number of employees both regionally and globally.
“Members of the negotiating teams for Pakistan at Meta, representing Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, have been replaced, so expect any progress in talks with Meta and Twitter,” the executive said. do not have.”
Sources in the telecom industry, on the other hand, say that despite assurances from the IT Ministry of a business-friendly environment, inconsistent policies created distrust among companies and they were reluctant to set up offices in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday visited META (Facebook), Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore to launch the “STARS Program” for monetization in Pakistan.
This program will help in capacity building of young entrepreneurs for the growing number of meta content developers in Pakistan.
