Jang/Geo Group owner calls social media ‘gutter’

KARACHI: Mir Shakilur Rehman, the owner of Jang/Geo Group, walked out of the Supreme Court on Tuesday to defend his organisation before the media. As he did so, he termed social media ‘gutter’.

"Social media is, in the world, globally 75 per cent of the people say social media [content] is gutter," he said outside the apex court as he tried to make a point about viral videos and remarks made on the platform.



“Imran Khan keeps hailing social media because they have permission there, as do other political parties, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, to post anything easily.”

Paradoxically, Mir Shakil’s media group has arguably one of the largest social media presence as well. His nine media properties have a combined following of 26.22 million on Facebook and 1.83 million followers on Twitter.



In this context, Mir Shakil’s comments outside the apex court were quite disconcerting. Does this mean he doesn’t take social media seriously?

“Create 1,000 to 10,000 email addresses and within an hour you can post rubbish and make propaganda [go viral]," he said alluding to the presence of a large number of fake accounts which are used to spread content, make it go viral and to boost the number of followers and likes on social media pages for a cost.