No one can deny the fact that the current era is the era of social media as global landscape observers noticed a swift shift from drastic, traditional media, especially in the second decade of the current century. In the initial times after the emergence of social media, people used to restrict themselves to entertainment purposes or for obtaining general information. A number of studies reflected the impact of political participation of voters and on voters’ outcomes in mature democracies. However, due to the non-usage of social media for political purposes, our young generation in particular lost interest in politics. When politicians shifted their focus toward social media for political campaigns, the interest in youth developed. Now, developed and even underdeveloped democracies use social media platform as a tool for their electoral campaigns, sharing their political frameworks with their supporters/ voters to influence their opinion. However, with the passage of time, the concept of this important platform has shifted to somewhere damaging the ethical/ moral values of the nation as a whole. Many important figures used social media as an effective medium for their campaign and even used derogatory remarks toward their opponents including Donald Trump. Whereas, if we rank politicians especially in the South Asian region for using impertinent remarks toward his opponents, ousted Imran Khan would be on the top of the list.
In Imran Khan’s speech in Multan, he had written something about Maryam Nawaz on his Facebook account. According to a general view of the audience, they did not expect Imran Khan, who had studied at Oxford, to use such language about a woman. Moreover, when they were listening to Imran Khan’s speech, they were shocked at the comments about Maryam Nawaz. They feel saddened by how the national-level politicians are talking and that too while women and girls were listening. According to analysts, Pakistan will endure economic hardship but moral bankruptcy will destroy it. Of course, they belong to the old class that still believes in leftover traditions. There was a time when nobles did not comment on each other’s sisters and daughters like this.
Developed and even underdeveloped democracies use social media platform as a tool for their electoral campaigns.
What was said in Multan may be regrettable, not surprising. Now, this is normal in politics and especially on social media. Imran Khan has old grief. A campaign was started against his ex-wife and now it is going on against Bushra Begum on social media. Now, dirty twitter trends are run against the wives or sisters of Maryam Nawaz and Imran Khan. This game goes on all day. One day Maryam Nawaz’s character is deprecated on Twitter, then the next day it is Bushra Begum’s turn. Imran Khan and even the other political parties are very happy with the performance of their supporters on Twitter. All the parties were highly satisfied with their social media teams. A sensible, educated national might wonder how much power degrades or exposes the slave. How far does the desire to rule human beings go? Where do our people stand?
That is the moral level of the politicians today. It is the job of leaders to train their people or society in good manners. They are role models for generations, but together, they have poisoned society. Now you can hardly find a normal person, otherwise, there is such madness and obsession on Twitter and social media that one wonders how this creature would have lived with patience and gratitude before the invention of social media. No one’s honour is safe now. The same formula is running on social media-honour is not mine and I will not let you stay. He who cannot curse is considered weak. People in our society respect someone as much as he/ she is rude and talkative. Now, it’s time to honour the character.
Last but not the least, there is a dire requirement for a strategy to be devised for combating the immoral/ unethical posts in general and especially during electoral campaigns. As Twitter has a number of codes of conduct but sad to mention here that not a single one is implemented expected in one or two cases. On social media platforms, there are a number of fake accounts, which usually post immoral political posts, however, to overcome this reprehensible trend, social media companies must be accountable to avoid such acts in future and to facilitate a fecund platform for the youth.
The writer is a freelancer and media activist. She writes on political developments and security issues with special focus on South Asia.