Pakistan’s homegrown messaging app concerns privacy activists

Pakistan has announced its own messaging app, but digital rights activists are concerned. Beep was announced in 2023 and although initially only for federal officials and employees, it will become available to the general public in the future. Officials cite apps such as the Chinese-made WeChat as inspiration for developing its homegrown service. The comparison worries activists such as Ramsha Jahangir, who told Al Jazeera that “local ‘solutions’ should prioritise respecting users’ privacy rather than merely increasing government power over the private sector”. Her concern is not unwarranted: after senior officials were targeted by spyware Pegasus in 2019, Pakistan has been quick to interfere with its population’s internet access. X has been banned since April, and mobile data services were suspended on election day in February. Government involvement does not guarantee a platform’s success – earlier this month Indian microblogging app Koo was shut down due fundraising shortfall, despite being endorsed as an alternative to X by several prominent ministers.