A few years back, we had only traditional media. Each news report had to go through a gatekeeping channel in order to be viewed by the masses. But then the social media brought a revolution and removed these barriers. People did not have to go through these gatekeeping barriers anymore. Their opinion does not have to wait for the approval of a news organization or channel.
In the beginning, people were using social media for posting photos and videos, but with the advent of Twitter, the usage became quite political. Both Facebook and Twitter became a tool for the general public to share their political opinions. Ever since the election 2013, Twitter became a battle zone for PMLN and PTI supporters. It was fine till supporters were trending hashtags in favour of their favourite leaders but when Imran khan announced his sit-in, there started the decline of Twitter.
Ever since the sit-in of PTI, ridiculing hashtags against each other began to trend. Every day there would be PTI supporters and PMLN supporters trending anti-Imran Khan and anti-Nawaz sharif hashtags to humiliate each other. All parties made their media cells with fake accounts that jibe at other parties all day.
The hashtags that are now seen on Twitter are an embarrassment for the nation. Political parties ridicule each other without any filters. Moreover, profanities for politicians including Imran Khan, Maryam Nawaz, Nawaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto trend frequently in Pakistan.
Twitter’s hashtag structure is problematic as well. There are many times when masses do not agree with a hashtag, but they have to use the same hashtag even if they wanted to condemn it, which keeps that disgusting hashtag trending.
A few days earlier, hashtags about Imran khan and anchor Gareeda Farooqui consisting of profanities were trending on Twitter. I wanted to condemn both of those hashtags, but how could I or anyone possibly do that? If we used both hashtags with our condemnation statements, we will be somehow contributing to both hashtags. We cannot report a hashtag, nor Twitter will take it down on the mass request because there is no mechanism for it.
The hashtags are trended by organized cells who are assigned the agenda for the day. These cells are made for political as well as diplomatic purposes.
Political parties make accounts to promote their agenda and for propaganda against the rival parties which is very prevalent in our country.
The other cells are the diplomatic cells that make accounts to cause disruption in other countries for their own interest. For example, whenever we want to trend the issue of Kashmir, mysteriously the hashtags for Baloch nationalism will appear on the trend section as well in order to give an impression that Balochistan wants separation. Many times it has been debunked that these accounts have IP addresses from India.
Most Pakistanis see a hashtag and decide this is what the whole nation thinks. For example, yesterday a hashtag “Make Punjabi our National Language” was being trended on Twitter. Now at the first glance, it gives an impression that Punjabis are demanding for Punjabi to become a national language. But when we see the top tweets, the majority of Punjabis were actually criticizing the idea. Meanwhile, there were certain accounts with anonymous identities demanding this step on behalf of a whole province. The problem is most users might not understand this and this may result in tensions among various communities.
Although this is just usual mischief started by some diplomatic cells of our rival countries on Twitter but it does have an impact. And this happens on daily basis. Twitter is no longer a platform where people could have fun or free speech. Our citizens are bombarded with propaganda content against political parties, ethnicities, religions, sects, on daily basis influencing their minds. They cannot say a word about other politicians without being abused by the fan army of the opposite party.
Imran Khan has influence. He should address the nation and tell people that if they do not agree with a hashtag, they shouldn’t use it. He needs to bring laws to protect everyone from cyber bullying. Critiquing someone is a right of a citizen, but using profanity shouldn’t be allowed. The government should either ban this platform or educate Pakistanis about its algorithms.
