Politics, fakery and social media

Twitter is particularly prone to fakery; this newspaper has identified many fake accounts

Millions of people in Pakistan habitually use social media, with Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter high on the must-go-to list for anybody that has a smartphone. There were almost 42 million smartphone users according to government figures this time last year and that number can only have increased. They are avid consumers of everything the internet has to offer and in these uncertain times it is unwise to believe everything that is seen and read on the ‘net’. Few are discriminating enough to be able to differentiate between what is real and what is fake, and fakery abounds particularly in the political niches of social media.

The social media are powerful entities in their own right, and can be used to bring pressure to bear as recently when the PTI was forced to revoke the membership of a convicted rapist when a storm erupted across social media platforms. Those using their accounts to register a protest are also voters, and with potentially 40-plus million of them it would have been foolish in the extreme to ignore them. Twitter is particularly prone to fakery, and this newspaper has identified many fake accounts attributed to prominent public figures across the spectrum. Those seeing the fake accounts, unless they are skilled at sleuthing their way through the internet undergrowth, will be unaware — or simply not care — as to whether what they are seeing and believing is real or not. In the wrong hands, and there is no shortage of them as the election pot bubbles, these falsehoods can be influential to the point at which they may be considered a danger with the potential to influence voters’ minds and choices and hence electoral outcomes.

Democracy is fragile enough without adding another layer of fragility, yet this has happened almost unknowingly and the government and its various agencies are ill-prepared to fight a cyber-battle they never anticipated. Thus we urge caution, because seeing and believing can be a treacherous path.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2018.

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