Daily Times

This is the age of leaks everywhere, mostly aiming to undermine some or the other. There are leaks of Apple, Google and Microsoft in the developed world as well but for the information about the upcoming projects. In our country leaks have become a tool to undermine the opponents or to file cases against the challengers. The major cause is the selfishness of human beings that they would do anything, regardless of ethics, to win the war. The 21st century has opened this new war front in the shape of 5th generation wars where the tools of social media and electronics gimmickry are being deployed and depended heavily on to create an artificial hype among the people to win over the opponents. Consequently, from top to bottom in every walk of life, we are bringing videos and audio against anyone who needs to be admonished or chastised. Sometimes these leaks are so damaging that one is amazed at the timing and ingenuity of the creators that suspicion and doubts arise about their authenticity. Whatever the case may be, the leaks may be genuine or ingenuine, these can cause a stir among the people. People want to know the facts out the sheer curiosity and sometimes they simply want to enjoy the leak without having any intentions of damaging the people being targeted. These leaks are, however, responsible for the agitative and alarming situation in society and create panic in the minds of individuals who are likely to fall victim to any such issues. Moreover, the level of watching opponents for discovery or invention of such material has opened a new business and negative industry for the evil-mongering people.

But the fate of every leak is just for a few days of hype. Every leak gets life in social media and mainstream journalism for a few days and afterwards is followed by a new one that the former is forgotten by everyone. So far, no one has been tried or punished because of these leaks. Neither the creator is found nor the authenticity and so it is baffling the socio-political structures of the society. These shapes and styles of attacking the honour and self-respect of individuals are likely to increase as soon as new technology is accessible to the people who want to make money out of this dark business. Artificial intelligence is knocking at our doors along with the already available tools like Photoshop and hacking and plagiarizing software. Artificial intelligence tools are already revealing their capacity to regenerate the voice and visuals of anyone in the world successfully so that it is difficult to differentiate between the real and the fake.

Every leak gets life in social media and mainstream journalism for a few days only to be followed by a new one.

It is high time that these leaks must be investigated for their authenticity and validity because they are a part of the 5th generation war against the opponent societies and can be heavily damaging to public safety and morale. The flip side of these leaks is that 99 per cent of these are fake and created through the artificial intelligence tools of information and computer technology. According to an International media report one parent in the USA received a call from their daughter that she was abducted and needed to be rescued and a ransom demand was made. The parents at first got upset but the presence of mind worked. She made a call to the daughter, and it was found that the daughter was safe and sound. The parents were unable to differentiate between the reality and the fakeness of the voice of their daughter. She could discover the fraud only because of the presence of her mind and the sources available to her. This and many other examples, go to prove that most of these leaks are fake and have no value other than the entertainment of the people on social media.

Leaks are causing a new type of hype and social unrest in the already troubled social waters of the Pakistani economy because they are proving a source of concern and conflict among the people and are opening new fronts for the security agencies to deal with. This is high time to deal with them. Firstly, the authenticity of the leaks must be checked so that no leaks should be given any value unless it is claimed by the author and the sources are validated. Secondly, even if someone comes forward to claim, it may be investigated then and there through high-quality forensic analysis. The culprits of the spread of these panic attacks on society must be punished under cyber laws. Fourthly, human privacy rights may be reenacted or revisited so that trials against such social enemies may be awarded befitting punishments. If the leaks prove to be correct and authentic, the people involved should also be brought under prosecution and must be rightly tried in a court of law for justified punishment.

This has become necessary to act boldly against these things because the people of Pakistan need the planning, legislation and effective measures to reduce their socioeconomic predicaments. People are worried also because of the law-and-order situation in Pakistan and overall we are becoming a nation to be ignored by the world where actually we need to stay and claim our share in the world’s socio-political economy.

The writer is a professor of English at Government Emerson University, Multan. He can be reached at zeadogar@hotmail.com and Tweets at @Profzee