The Meta group deleted on Wednesday, before reactivating on Friday, a Facebook group with 300,000 members which offers Pakistani women a space to discuss taboo subjects in this conservative country.
The group Soul Sisters, created in 2013 by Kanwal Ahmed, and which talks about sexuality, divorce or domestic violence – issues little discussed in this conservative country with a Muslim majority – was deleted Wednesday evening on the grounds of a “violation of property intellectual unspecified,” explained its founder.
“The arbitrariness and non-transparency of platforms”
The social network suspended the group for this reason “without even mentioning what post it was about,” she said, stressing that it only included “personal stories and anonymous posts.”
The Facebook group was reactivated on Friday evening, with the Meta group refusing to comment for the moment.
For Shmyla Khan, digital rights specialist, “the suspension of Soul Sisters embodies the arbitrariness and non-transparency of platforms and how, in a subtle way, the rules of these platforms can go against the interests of users in the Global South.”
Accused of promoting “divorce” and “debauchery”
Soul Sisters – a closed network, inaccessible to men – divides in the country where arranged unions are the norm, where more than 80% of women say they have been harassed in public spaces and where one in four women say they have suffered violence physical or psychological on the part of his companion, according to the authorities.
Some accuse Soul Sisters of promoting divorce and “debauchery” by offering information on sex education, domestic violence and other subjects little discussed publicly in Pakistan.
But in 2018, Facebook selected its founder Kanwal Ahmed as one of 115 “Community Leaders” using its platform to help others, awarding her a grant.
Frequent online censorship
The Pakistani authorities also regularly practice online censorship. X has been cut since the legislative elections of February 8, marred by allegations of manipulation.
TikTok was banned twice by authorities for “inappropriate content” until it committed to moderating its content — and officially removed more than 18 million videos in the last quarter of 2023.