Social media debate: ‘Internet helps parties with limited resources reach out’
PML-N’s Khurram Dastagir and PTI’s Shafqat Mahmood discuss the opportunities and pitfalls of the Internet.
LAHORE:
Politicians discussed the issues of privacy, online abuse, exploitation and political mileage gained through the Internet at the Lahore University of Management and Sciences (LUMS) on Thursday.
Held under the LUMS Initiative on Internet and Society, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members deliberated on the topic: Internet and Technology’s Role and Scope in Democracy and Politics. The talk was moderated by LUMS Vice Chancellor Dr Adil Najam. The speakers were PTI Central Secretary Information Shafqat Mahmood and PML-N MNA Khurram Dastagir.
“The Internet and technology has helped parties with limited resources to reach out to people,” said Shafqat Mahmood. He said new political parties had greater possibilities to increase public outreach. Mahmood said the time had come for the country to move towards e-governance as technology had rid us of the need for paper. “GHQ has taken this step – the army headquarters is now paperless,” he said. However, he said issues pertaining to privacy and secrecy still needed to be addressed.
Mahmood said there was no denying that growing connectivity had also enabled governments to keep a stricter check on people by tracking their movements. “In countries like the US, there are already movement in which people are demanding more privacy,” he said. He also said there was a need to ponder over the internet’s effects on society, as youngsters were easily able to access unsuitable content like pornography online.
“The challenge of the Internet is that anyone who has access to it is now a publisher. We become publishers whenever we tweet,” Khurram Dastgir said. “Media and publishing houses in the early days were mostly owned by rich people…now theoretically everyone is empowered and at a very low cost.”
However, he pointed to the technological divide in Pakistani society. “People are still deprived of technology…this reality is not so obvious to people in large cities,” he said. Talking about his constituency in Gujranwala, Dastagir said a large number of his voters were not Internet users. “My television appearances are the way I access them,” he said.
Dastagir said the Internet’s accessibility to ‘antidemocratic forces’ posed a danger. He said while technology helped facilitate the people grouping together at Tahrir Square, it could not force people to act in the real world. “It is a massive enabling force but, in the end, one needs people’s will to act,” he said.
Dr Najam questioned the political parties’ investments in social media campaigns. Dastagir credited the PTI with having brought the attention of political parties towards the segment of society that is on the Internet but not as active in politics. “The rule of thumb in Pakistani politics was that people on the Internet are electorally irrelevant,” he said.
The discussion moved to how the media develops news and shapes opinions. “If there is something happening on the ground, it is going to make news,” said Mahmood. Quoting the instance when his tweets were quoted up by Nusrat Javed in a talk show within 24 hours of the tweet, he said, “This is how fast news is being picked from the Internet.” Dastagir said while television media was the main indicator of public opinion, television channels were also picking up.
Regarding online abuse, Mahmood said he was often subjected to abuse, especially on his Twitter account. “Sometime I get tweets from people which otherwise are impossible to say to someone’s face,” he said. “For now I’d say we are doing okay,” he said. “It is definitely a way to get noticed…both publicly and within parties,” said Dastagir.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2012.
Politicians discussed the issues of privacy, online abuse, exploitation and political mileage gained through the Internet at the Lahore University of Management and Sciences (LUMS) on Thursday.
Held under the LUMS Initiative on Internet and Society, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members deliberated on the topic: Internet and Technology’s Role and Scope in Democracy and Politics. The talk was moderated by LUMS Vice Chancellor Dr Adil Najam. The speakers were PTI Central Secretary Information Shafqat Mahmood and PML-N MNA Khurram Dastagir.
“The Internet and technology has helped parties with limited resources to reach out to people,” said Shafqat Mahmood. He said new political parties had greater possibilities to increase public outreach. Mahmood said the time had come for the country to move towards e-governance as technology had rid us of the need for paper. “GHQ has taken this step – the army headquarters is now paperless,” he said. However, he said issues pertaining to privacy and secrecy still needed to be addressed.
Mahmood said there was no denying that growing connectivity had also enabled governments to keep a stricter check on people by tracking their movements. “In countries like the US, there are already movement in which people are demanding more privacy,” he said. He also said there was a need to ponder over the internet’s effects on society, as youngsters were easily able to access unsuitable content like pornography online.
“The challenge of the Internet is that anyone who has access to it is now a publisher. We become publishers whenever we tweet,” Khurram Dastgir said. “Media and publishing houses in the early days were mostly owned by rich people…now theoretically everyone is empowered and at a very low cost.”
However, he pointed to the technological divide in Pakistani society. “People are still deprived of technology…this reality is not so obvious to people in large cities,” he said. Talking about his constituency in Gujranwala, Dastagir said a large number of his voters were not Internet users. “My television appearances are the way I access them,” he said.
Dastagir said the Internet’s accessibility to ‘antidemocratic forces’ posed a danger. He said while technology helped facilitate the people grouping together at Tahrir Square, it could not force people to act in the real world. “It is a massive enabling force but, in the end, one needs people’s will to act,” he said.
Dr Najam questioned the political parties’ investments in social media campaigns. Dastagir credited the PTI with having brought the attention of political parties towards the segment of society that is on the Internet but not as active in politics. “The rule of thumb in Pakistani politics was that people on the Internet are electorally irrelevant,” he said.
The discussion moved to how the media develops news and shapes opinions. “If there is something happening on the ground, it is going to make news,” said Mahmood. Quoting the instance when his tweets were quoted up by Nusrat Javed in a talk show within 24 hours of the tweet, he said, “This is how fast news is being picked from the Internet.” Dastagir said while television media was the main indicator of public opinion, television channels were also picking up.
Regarding online abuse, Mahmood said he was often subjected to abuse, especially on his Twitter account. “Sometime I get tweets from people which otherwise are impossible to say to someone’s face,” he said. “For now I’d say we are doing okay,” he said. “It is definitely a way to get noticed…both publicly and within parties,” said Dastagir.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2012.