Someone is threatening to post private images. A fake account is using your photographs. A former employee has published your documents. A page is running a campaign against your business.
This is now among the most common legal problems in Pakistan, and it is one where speed and evidence decide the outcome far more than argument does.
Do these three things first
1. Do not pay, and do not negotiate. Payment funds the next demand. Blackmail of this kind almost never stops after one payment, and paying weakens your position when the matter is investigated.
2. Preserve evidence before anything disappears. Screenshots are not enough on their own. Capture:
- The full URL of every post, profile or message
- Screenshots showing the username, timestamp and content together
- The profile page itself
- Any messages, call records or payment demands
- Where possible, a screen recording showing the content live
Do not delete your own messages, however embarrassing. Deleting your side of a conversation destroys the context that proves coercion.
3. Do not confront the person publicly. Replies, counter-posts and threats become part of the record and are used against you.
The legal framework
The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA) covers, among other things: unauthorised access to accounts and devices; identity offences and impersonation; offences against the modesty of a person and the misuse of images; electronic fraud and forgery; cyberstalking and harassment; and the making or distribution of certain material.
Enforcement sits with the FIA Cyber Crime Wing. Content blocking and removal sit with the PTA, which operates its own complaint mechanism separately from any criminal case.
Those are two distinct tracks and both are usually worth running.
The complaint route
- Complaint to the FIA Cyber Crime Wing, with the evidence organised — not as a narrative, but as a schedule of URLs, dates and what each item shows
- Inquiry, at which the agency assesses whether an offence is disclosed and may seek platform data
- FIR, where an offence is made out
- Investigation, arrest and trial where the perpetrator is identified
Alongside that:
PTA complaint for blocking or removal of the content within Pakistan.
Direct platform reports — Meta, TikTok, YouTube and X all have reporting routes for impersonation and non-consensual imagery, and these frequently produce the fastest actual removal. Use them in parallel, not instead.
A legal notice to an identified individual can also be effective where the person is known and traceable. See legal notices.
Be realistic about what happens
Honest expectations matter here.
Removal is often achievable. Blocking within Pakistan and platform takedown are the most reliably obtainable outcomes.
Identification is harder where the account is anonymous, offshore, or run through a VPN, and depends on what the platform provides.
Prosecution takes time, as all criminal proceedings do.
Content already downloaded and re-shared cannot be recalled. This is why speed matters so much in the first days.
Anyone promising you complete erasure of something from the internet is misleading you.
For women, and for families
A great many of these cases involve women being threatened with images or messages, often by a former partner or spouse. Two things worth saying plainly:
The law treats you as the victim of an offence, not as the person at fault, and complaints of this kind can be made and pursued.
The matter frequently runs alongside a family dispute — divorce, khula, custody — and is used as leverage in it. It should be handled together with that dispute, not separately. See khula, protection orders and reporting a sexual offence.
Where the harassment is by a colleague or in a workplace context, there is a separate statutory route. See workplace harassment complaints.
For businesses
Fake pages, cloned websites, hijacked social accounts, fraudulent listings using your brand, and coordinated review attacks all fall in this territory. The response usually combines a PECA complaint, platform enforcement, and trade mark rights, which give a stronger takedown basis than a complaint alone.
Where the content is a false factual allegation rather than impersonation, see what is actually actionable as defamation.
Where a former employee is behind it, see protecting your business when an employee leaves.
If you have been accused
PECA complaints are also used tactically — in family disputes, business disagreements and after a falling-out. If a complaint has been made against you, do not respond to the complainant, do not delete anything, and take advice before attending. See an FIA notice.
How the firm can help
We assemble evidence in a form the FIA can act on, file and follow complaints, pursue PTA blocking and platform takedown in parallel, obtain court orders where appropriate, and act for clients who are wrongly accused.
Matters of this kind are handled discreetly. If it is happening now, contact the firm today rather than tomorrow — every hour the content stays up increases how far it spreads.