March 26, 2018: Founder CODE PAKISTAN Mr. Dilawar Khan was invited to give a talk on Surfsafe at the “Social Media Festival 2K18” organized by the University of Lahore. Surfsafe is an initiative of CODE PAKISTAN for reporting of online extremist content in collaboration with the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA). During his talk titled “Ethical Paradoxes: Safe Surfing in the Digital Age,” Founder CODE PAKISTAN Mr. Dilawar Khan highlighted the importance of counter extremism as an essential ingredient of countering terrorism. “Only the individuals who are intolerant of divergent opinions resort to violence in the name of what they believe to be right,” he said. His talk further highlighted the importance of social media in the cyber age and gave a comprehensive overview of the relevant laws that criminalize hate speech in Pakistan. He shared with the audience that it was not only illegal to incite violence according to various applicable laws of Pakistan, but that the responsible citizens now had the opportunity to refer such elements to relevant government agencies who used the internet to spread hatred and incite violence.
Mr. Khan shared with the audience that Surfsafe, CODE PAKISTAN’s initiative in collaboration with NACTA, recognized the importance of the internet as an important source of dissemination of both positive and negative information in the 21st century. He further shared that CODE PAKISTAN and NACTA had launched Surfsafe to respond to the spread of hatred over the internet by the extremists.
Surfsafe enables the responsible citizens of Pakistan to report any website or social media account containing extremist content. The initiative would enable the relevant government institutions to effectively monitor, as well as block, such sites. It is a platform for every responsible citizen of Pakistan to report online extremist content for monitoring by authorized agencies without any fear.