Islamabad: The Pakistan government has approved a set of rules to regulate social media in the country, under which companies will be obliged to disclose any information or data to a designated investigation agency, when sought, and failure to abide by any of the provision will entail a fine of up to $3 million.

The information to be provided may include subscriber information, traffic data or content data, Dawn reported.

Under the rules, social media platforms will be required to remove any 'unlawful content' pointed out to them in writing or electronically signed email within 24 hours, and in emergency cases within six hours.

The firms will have to establish registered offices with physical address located in Islamabad within next three months and will also be required to appoint a Pakistan-based focal person for coordination with the relevant authorities within three months and establish one or more database servers in the country within 12 months to record and store data and online content.