ISLAMABAD: In the past five years, an alarming rate of 1.8 million women in Pakistan have fallen victim to cybercrime, but unfortunately the conviction rate remains low, according to official figures available with Hum News.
The Hum Investigates team has uncovered disturbing, shocking, and eye-opening facts about cyber-crimes and online harassment of women.
According to official figures, in the past five years, 1.8 million women in Pakistan have fallen victim to cybercrime. Similarly, over the last five years, over 2.7 million complaints related to digital crimes were filed to the authorities concerned across Pakistan.
According to officials, 80 per cent of these complaints were related to women and children. Of these, 1.8 million complaints were filed by women with the PTA, FIA, police, and the Federal Ombudsman. As a result, over 8,000 cases were registered, more than 11,000 suspects were arrested, but only 3.5 per cent of the accused, i.e., 225 individuals, were convicted.
The debate over new legislation for digital crime protection, along with the alarming rise in online crimes on social media, has presented several new challenges for the state. The investigation has revealed that no institution has any records or data regarding the millions of women who suffered pain and difficulties due to this flood of cybercrime in Pakistan. Furthermore, when these women approached law enforcement agencies, 96 per cent of them did not receive any justice.
The issue is not limited to the harassment of working women or homemakers; it also includes incidents like the recent one, where a cyber warrior edited and deepfaked a handshake between a Pakistani official and a UAE representative using AI technology. The UAE government formally protested this disgraceful act.”
The rise in cybercrime in Pakistan on social media has not only highlighted the economic and moral decline but also led to a fraud of 700 billion rupees in the past five years, destroying the personal lives of hundreds of people. This trend shows no signs of slowing down. According to government documents obtained by our investigations, the Federal Investigation Agency’s Cyber Crime Wing received over 639,000 complaints between 2020 and 2024.
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These complaints primarily involved online harassment of women, fraud, religious hatred, blasphemy, and other similar crimes. Of these complaints, 414,260 were verified, leading to 73,825 investigations and 5,713 court cases. During this period, 7,020 suspects were arrested, and 222 individuals were convicted.
In 2020, out of 102,000 cybercrime complaints in Pakistan, 98,882 were verified, leading to 9,112 investigations, 601 court cases, 625 arrests, and 20 convictions. In 2021, 115,868 complaints were filed, with 80,803 verified, leading to 15,766 investigations, 1,224 cases, 1,306 arrests, and 38 convictions. In 2022, 145,667 complaints were filed, 83,552 verified, leading to 14,380 investigations, 1,469 cases, 1,700 arrests, and 48 convictions. In 2023, 152,136 complaints were filed, 82,396 verified, leading to 18,012 investigations, 1,375 cases, 2,007 arrests, and 92 convictions. In 2024, 123,893 complaints were filed, 68,627 verified, leading to 16,555 investigations, 1,044 cases, 1,382 arrests, and 24 convictions.
FIA sources stated that the reason for the low conviction rate is that many victims settle with the accused, which lowers the number of convictions in courts.
The PTA has been requesting the blocking of over 900 immoral and offensive posts daily. According to official statistics, in the past five years, the PTA has requested social media platforms to remove 1.45 million posts. More than 500,000 URLs with immoral content have been blocked. Over 90,000 URLs containing contempt of court, over 200,000 targeting defence institutions, over 200,000 with anti-Islam content, sectarian hate speech, and pages spreading hateful speech, 50,000 YouTube posts, 200,000 TikTok posts, 300,000 Facebook posts, 50,000 X posts, and 24,000 Instagram posts have been deleted or blocked.
In these circumstances, the government passed the new PECA law, establishing the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency by removing the powers of the Cyber Crime Wing. This raises questions as to why the government suddenly decided to create a new investigative agency when the existing Cyber Crime Wing was already functioning. Is it due to the growing use of social media and the rapidly increasing online crimes? Additionally, the speed and manner in which this new agency was established have raised several questions. FIA’s jurisdiction was not extensive enough to address crimes on social media, which might be why the decision was made to establish the National Crime Agency.
Compared to 2019, last year saw a 70 per cent rise in the harmful use of artificial intelligence. AI has rapidly engulfed the world, especially concerning the ethical and security risks posed by deepfakes. Deepfakes, or unauthorised manipulations of images, digitally alter visual or audio content to create fake images or scenarios.
This technology makes it difficult to distinguish between real and artificial images. Deepfakes are often used to spread misinformation and are misused for malicious purposes. In the past three years, the Cyber Crime Wing received approximately 51,000 complaints related to deepfakes and unethical images, most of which came from women. Digital rights organisations working in Pakistan have stated that deepfakes have ushered in a new era of mistreatment and discrimination against women in Pakistan, presenting new challenges for the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing in addressing these issues.