Daily Times

Hitler’s infamous chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels said “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success until one fundamental principle is born in mind constantly -It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over”.

Cyber space and digital means have given a new life to the propaganda philosophy of Goebbels. Huge expansion of social media platforms is posing multi-dimensional threats ranging from financial scams, hacking, theft of data, trolling and agenda driven influencing. Government has taken a right decision to regulate the digital platforms.

Absence of regulatory mechanism is offering a big gap to exploiters. Criticism on the formulation of Digital Rights Protection Authority (DRPA) seems a bit misplaced and politically driven. There should be thorough debate and parliamentary deliberation in the process of legislation to remove the bugs.

Government has already announced formal consultation with journalist bodies to address the valid concerns about freedom of press. No civilized society can allow the untraceable influencers to incite violence and hatred against the state. Besides anti-state activities, ill effects of digital exploitation on societal behaviors merit due attention.

Pakistan cannot be left unguarded on digital platforms at the mercy of terrorists, exploiters and anarchists.

Trolling phenomenon emerged exponentially with beyond the borders outreach of online platforms. Despite providing numerous facilities to masses, cyber platforms in Pakistan are more than ever open to all brands of exploiters.

Latest episode is related to the outbreak of violence in Kyrgyzstan. Highly condemnable barrage of fake news on social media multiplied the agony of Pakistani families whose near ones were stranded in Kyrgyzstan.

This factor was specifically pointed out by the Kyrgyz ambassador in an interview that social media propaganda based on unauthentic posts triggered the chaos in Pakistan.

Public protests in AJK related to governance issues were manipulated to incite the violence. Shadowy key board warriors are striving hard to pitch the state institutions against each other. Government, judiciary, armed forces and political leadership are complaining about the malicious campaigns.

Untraceable penetration of a harmful operator in the digital space of any individual or state department is no more restricted to the conventional pilferage of data or information.

Cults influenced with religio-political ideologies have now taken a significant lead over psychologically compromised trolls. Agenda driven trolls usually generate collective trolling activities against the target which might be a person, group or any state institution.

Ironically, digital platforms are being extensively used by hardcore terrorist groups, ethnic separatists, sectarian quarters, criminals and politically motivated anarchists. Worst form of extremist cult-based trolling reared its head in India. Hindutva driven ultra-right trolls of RSS and BJP used the social media platform blatantly against the marginalized minorities.

What transpired in Pakistan on account of social media trolling is quite serious and worrisome for saner quarters. Political manipulators have learned to convert the trolling in a sharpened weapon against the rival forces.

Dark shadows of politicized social media campaigning have contributed in thickening the clouds of uncertainty in the society. Blind affiliation with any political party or its leader has vast potential to compromise the independent decision making process.

Aggressive social media campaigns knitted with the false narratives eventually expedited the process of economic decline in post no confidence motion scenario. Sympathizers of former ruling party opted to settle the score of political defeat on social media platforms.

Though, troll tendency remained successful in creating temporary short span impacts, but in the longer run such unwise acts contributed towards polarization, intolerance and deviation from real public issues.

Ironically, major political groups or stake holders apparently lack the will to drop the malicious idea of deploying the shadowy key board warriors against each other. Severity of the issue can be understood with the unearthed details of malicious trolling campaigns launched against judiciary, armed forces, LEAs and media persons.

Trolls have virtually made the state institutions hostage. With the trolls in lead, culture of political dialogue and constructive criticism is vanishing from society. Many credible journalists have refrained from expressing their opinion primarily due to cult mentality of trolls towards any genuine criticism on their party or leader.

Unaware of logical debate, trolls fire the barrage of fabricated stuff with excessive use of abusive language to mitigate any kind of difference of opinion. Prevailing gap in digital space of Pakistan has become a major vulnerability. There is a definite need to bring in force the legal regulatory mechanism.

Ongoing process of legislation to regulate the digital platforms should not be dropped on the pretext of press freedom. All stakeholders from media, political parties, legal experts and civil society should contribute in legislation with objective recommendations.

Mere rejection or opposition of regulatory mechanism on political grounds should be avoided. Pakistan cannot be left unguarded on digital platforms at the mercy of terrorists, exploiters and anarchists.

The writer is a graduate of QAU, PhD scholar and a freelance writer and can be reached at fa7263125@gmail.com