The Director of Cyber Crime, FIA has recently told the media that the FIA Cyber Crime Wing is working round-the-clock to apprehend the culprits behind spreading hate material on social media and bring them into the ambit of the law. According to him, no one would be allowed to create anarchy or malign a state and its institutions through malicious campaigns on social media. The FIA cyber-crime wing has identified more than five hundred accounts and monitoring many others for subsequent action and accountability.
The unprecedented revolution in modern technologies and the latest digital innovations have brought unimaginable comforts and luxuries in human life while at the same time, misuse of those blessings by anti-social elements and criminals causes significant challenges for society, the state, and Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) across the world. There has been a sharp rise in cybercrimes and misuse of social media including online bullying and harassment, blackmail, banking fraud, unregulated online microloan websites, and applications that are massively used by hackers and criminals resulting in significant financial losses to the public as well as the national exchequer. Meanwhile, political, ethnic, religious, and terrorist groups are using social media platforms, and online resources to propagate their narratives and launch defamation and propaganda campaigns against their adversaries including the state and national institutions LEAs, Secuirty Institutions, etc.
Historically, the misuse of social media by certain groups has sharply grabbed the attention of the government and state agencies including the FIA cybercrimes wing, whose high-ups reach the media to highlight their performance and alert anti-state elements to pause their activities to avoid legal action. At the same, the LEAs including the FIA and its cybercrime wing failed to stall misuse of the internet, online fraud, and use of social media by criminal gangs for harassment, blackmail/ransom from innocent citizens in the current day digital environment. According to credible sources, the FIA Cybercrimes wings often failed to take proper action on the complaints lodged by the common citizens regarding online fraud through loan apps and blackmailing of girls/ women by criminals on social media. There is a dire need for the top leadership in government institutions to open a direct window for public contact/complaints other than traditional helpdesk/ complaint boxes etc those often dealt with by the lower staff. So, they could be aware of the true picture of the rise of online crimes, poor performances of their departments, and corruption of the workers/colleagues. Otherwise, such self-praise and acclimation might appease the government and politicians but neither reduce the suffering of the public nor succeed in curbing flourishing crimes in the country.
