{"id":90950,"date":"2025-02-26T23:03:34","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T23:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/need-to-move-away-from-desire-to-control-everything-bilawal-says-on-social-media-curbs\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T23:03:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T23:03:34","slug":"need-to-move-away-from-desire-to-control-everything-bilawal-says-on-social-media-curbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/need-to-move-away-from-desire-to-control-everything-bilawal-says-on-social-media-curbs\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Need to move away from desire to control everything,\u2019 Bilawal says on social media curbs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that Pakistan needs to avoid urges to control the media, stressing the need for rights-based approaches.<\/p>\n<p>Bilawal has previously opposed government stances on internet regulation, floating the idea of a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1880726\">bill of rights<\/a>\u201d for the digital age and criticising government <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1872561\">restrictions<\/a> on the use of virtual private networks (VPNs).<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:250px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1876131\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI believe access to the internet should be declared a fundamental right, like [the right to a clean] environment was declared a fundamental right in the 26th amendment. Affordable, equitable access to high-speed internet should be a fundamental right,\u201d he said at an event in December 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The PPP chairman had delivered a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1893258\">wide-ranging speech<\/a> at the Oxford Union, a pre\u00adstigious debating society that invites world leaders to speak on key issues before students and academics, last week. After his lecture, Oxford Union President Israr Khan hosted a Q&amp;A session with the PPP scion, the video of which was posted a day ago on the society\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/p>\n<p>Questioned about the state of press and media freedom in Pakistan, Bilawal said: \u201cThere is this urge to control, not just the formal media but the informal media, which is getting a little bit draconian and claustrophobic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said there was a \u201cgenerational disconnect\u201d at play where the \u201cboomers in Islamabad don\u2019t quite get social media or how the digital age works\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Bilawal said that 65 per cent of the population was under the age of 35. \u201cIf you suddenly take 65pc of the population\u2019s WhatsApp away, or slow down their Netflix streaming \u2026 you are suddenly antagonising 65pc of the population. It stifles creativity and economic activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  w-full  media--stretch  media--embed  \">\n<p><div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe title=\"Interview with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-IP8xbZ15Z4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Bilawal then mentioned the Digital Bill of Rights which he has been campaigning for that would ensure internet access, data protection and a rights-based approach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs it going to fix everything? I don\u2019t think so, but we need to move away from the current \u2018I have a problem, how do I control it\u2019 approach through a more rights-based approach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUltimately we just have to move away from this desire to control everything, everyone\u2019s opinion, everyone\u2019s tweet, every headline. You can\u2019t conquer the media, you certainly can\u2019t conquer the digital media,\u201d the PPP chairman said, calling it the \u201csoftware update\u201d needed in Islamabad.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if he would be in favour of a parliamentary commission investigating state-backed intimidation and media suppression, he replied in the affirmative.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that Pakistan needs to avoid urges to control the media, stressing the need for rights-based approaches. Bilawal has previously opposed government stances on internet regulation, floating the idea of a \u201cbill of rights\u201d for the digital age and criticising government restrictions on the use of virtual private networks [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2025\/02\/26230255a9f207a.jpg?r=003030","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}