ISLAMABAD  -   The Senate will take up a resolution, in its Monday’s session, which seeks a blanket ban on major social media platforms in the country to “save the young generation from their negative and devastating effects.”

The resolution that has been made part of the house agenda for its March 4 sitting, recommends to the government to put a ban on Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and Youtube.

The development invited widespread criticism from journalists and digital rights activists who say that the move is aimed at further curbing the freedom of expression in Pakistan. The house will discuss the resolution at a time when the country is already facing disruption to the services of X fol­lowing allegations of rig­ging in February 8 polls. The resolution will be moved by PPP Senator Bahramand Khan Tangi, who was expelled by the party last month for re­maining silent in a Sen­ate session that passed a controversial resolution seeking to delay Febru­ary 8 polls due to secu­rity concerns. However, the Senate secretariat’s record shows that Tangi is still a senator of PPP. The resolution claims that social media plat­forms are adversely af­fecting the young gen­eration in the country. It adds that these plat­forms are being used for promotion of norms against “our religion and culture, creating ha­tred amongst the peo­ple on the grounds of language and religion.” It notes that the use of such platforms to run negative and malicious propaganda against the armed forces of Paki­stan is against the in­terests of the country. “Such platforms are be­ing used by vested inter­ests for spreading fake news about various is­sues and try to create and promote fake lead­ership in the country to hoodwink the young generation,” the resolu­tion reads.