In a statement sent on Twitter on May 31, 2022, the FIA rejected the reports. The agency stressed that it has made no announcements about discussions with Facebook about the social media platform opening a Pakistani office.
On May 31, 2022, the Facebook page MangoBaaz posted that Facebook had begun discussions with the FIA about building a local office in Pakistan.
“Facebook initiates discussions to open local office in Pakistan,” the post’s headline reads.
According to the caption of the post, a representative from Meta, Facebook’s parent company, met with Director of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cybercrime Humayun Bashir to discuss the possibility of opening a permanent office in Pakistan.
The Federal Investigation Agency responded to the viral claim with a tweet on May 31, 2022, saying that it had not released a statement regarding the opening of a Facebook office in Pakistan and denying the viral report.
“No such official statement was made by FIA and the same is strongly denied,” the statement read. It continued, “The story also published the name of an FIA officer which is misleading.”
Notably, during the PTI’s mandate, then-Science Minister Fawad Chaudhry asked digital firms to establish operations in Pakistan.
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