According to its founder, who spoke to AFP on Friday, Facebook removed a women-only group in Pakistan that had more than 300,000 members and was used to openly discuss sensitive subjects.
Founded in 2013, Soul Sisters Pakistan served as a safe haven for women to talk about topics such as domestic abuse, divorce, and sex—topics that are frequently frowned upon when discussed in public.
Kanwal Ahmed told AFP, “This group means so much to women in Pakistan who now have nowhere to go.”
Facebook removed the group late on Wednesday, according to Kanwal, after notifying her of an unidentified “intellectual property violation” connected to a post.
Because of the group’s success, Ahmed was chosen by Facebook in 2018 as a community leader. “They didn’t even show which post it was,” Ahmed said.
“It’s literally personal stories and anonymous posts.” Facebook has been approached by AFP for comment.
Through the group, participants were able to provide informal assistance to one another on subjects that may have attracted abuse if discussed in public, such as legal counsel or emotional support.
Shmyla Khan, a digital rights researcher in Lahore, told AFP that Soul Sisters Pakistan suspension “speaks to the arbitrary and non-transparent ways in which social media platforms operate and subtle ways in which community guidelines of these platforms can work against users in the Global South.”
Sisters of Soul Critics have already attacked Pakistan, claiming it encourages divorce and “wild” behavior that goes against tradition and patriarchal standards.
UN Women stated in 2020 that over 80% of Pakistani women had experienced harassment in public settings, while a 2017–2018 health ministry survey found that over 25% of women had suffered physical or emotional abuse at the hands of their husbands or partners.
“I feel like I’m lost without the group,” Shiza stated, using only her given name. “This is where I used to go when life seemed too difficult to bear.”
In Pakistan, internet restriction is pervasive.
Since soon after the allegedly rigged national election in February, the government has often interfered with social media site X.
The telecoms regulators have twice banned TikTok for “inappropriate content,” and the bans were only removed following promises that the site would better filter content.
The most recent statistics from TikTok shows that over 18 million videos were taken down between October and December, and that between 2012 and 2016, content considered blasphemous led to YouTube’s prohibition.
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