Fact-check: P@SHA chairman's claim on US surveillance debunked

The chairman of the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA), while defending the Pakistan government’s decision to install a firewall for surveillance, claimed that a similar system exists in the United States where law enforcement arrives within 10 minutes if someone shares "illegal content" online.

The claim is false.

Claim

In a report published on Geo News’ website on December 3, Sajjad Mustafa Syed, the chairman of P@SHA, spoke about the government's plan to deploy a controversial firewall for surveillance. Syed stated that surveillance systems, including firewalls, exist in many countries.

He added: "In the United States, security personnel knocks on the door within 10 minutes if someone shares illegal content."

Fact

A US-based digital rights and legal expert confirmed that there is no system in the United States capable of monitoring individual online activities in real-time, nor any system that triggers a rapid law enforcement response.

Vivek Krishnamurthy, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Law School and director of the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law and Policy Clinic, spoke out against Syed's claim during an interview to local TV channel. Krishnamurthy called the assertion "simply false and outlandish."

Krishnamurthy explained how content regulations work in the US, adding that the types of content regulated are limited due to strong constitutional protections under the First Amendment.

He further said that regulated content in the US typically includes material with extreme obscenity, content that incites imminent lawless action, intellectual property violations, defamation, and privacy infringements.

The expert dismissed Syed’s claim as "absurd," stating: "[Syed’s] statement presumes that there is some kind of vast monitoring system where the police can know within ten minutes if someone did something naughty and show up at their door. That is simply absurd."

Krishnamurthy pointed out that if a private litigant wishes to have certain content removed, they must first seek a court order. He reiterated: "There is a strong degree of legal process here [in the US] and no monitoring system that can lead to law enforcement showing up in ten minutes."

Verdict: Contrary to the claim made by P@SHA’s chairman, there is no real-time monitoring system in the US capable of triggering an immediate police response to online activities.

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