Recognised as a banned terrorist outfit in Pakistan, Hizbut Tahrir’s video ads about how only their version and model of ‘Khilafah’ can bring the needed change to save the country creeped into timelines of the Pakistani audiences last night just 2 days before the national election. This despite the fact that Facebook promised measures including tightened reviews for political advertising so that its platform is not used to influence elections in Pakistan and other countries.
The ad in question is a video ad that lists how country’s ‘incompetent’ and ‘greedy’ leaders couldn’t solve the water and energy crises in decades despite having ‘abundant’ resources. It then presents their version of Khilafah as the ultimate model that they claim is the solution.
The page that runs the ad is titled ‘Hizbut Tahrir Britain’. This makes sense because they are not banned there and are allowed to operate under freedom of speech protection. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal earlier this year, Facebook had promised stern actions including limiting and reviewing political advertising and displaying information such as who’s paying for the ad along side. In this case, the ad clearly slipped through Facebook’s review process.
Hizbut Tahrir is banned in Pakistan. People get arrested and disappeared even for distributing their literature, let alone contesting election in Pakistan. In 2011, an intelligence warning stated that Hizbut Tahrir was planning a country-wide ‘uprising’ along the lines of the ‘Arab Spring’ in attempt to install their version of governance in the country. Then, in 2012, four army officers including a serving brigadier were convicted for trying to instigate mutiny in army and were even planning to attack the General Headquarters (GHQ). The outlawed organisation’s key leaders in Pakistan including former Jamaat Islami leader Neveed Butt were arrested in a raid.
We have written to spokesperson of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and will update this article when we hear from them.
Islamists in elections
Many controversial Islamist leaders and their parties have fielded candidates for the general election in the country that will take place on Wednesday. Some have even registered their political fronts under new names. There’s even a grand alliance of religious parties contesting as a single unit called Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA).
Facebook and Cambridge Analytica
Social media giant Facebook came under global scrutiny earlier this year after it was revealed how a data analytics firm may have used data of Facebook users to manipulate the US elections and was even operating in other countries. Facebook promised stern changes including enhanced privacy and measures to prevent content from influencing elections.
The writer is the Digital Editor, Daily Times and can be reached at [email protected]. He tweets and instagrams @FarhanJanjua