By Adeel Ayub
With the advancement of social media and its improved accessibility, things have improved for so many productive reasons and with a single click, people are running so many profitable businesses.
Just as there are many ways of using social media, the world of the internet comes with a complete package of good and bad. Like there are all sorts of people in a society, there is no difference between the world of the internet and digital social platforms where the negative people don’t stop from spreading negativity, hate, and chaos.
There have been many attempts made in order to maintain a healthy environment on social media and cyber-crime institutions are also actively working in order to crack down on the people spreading sentiments of hate and lawlessness.
Increasing Fake Account Activities
There has been a massive increase in the number of fake accounts on social media platforms, initially, they were considered to be used in order to promote a specific brand or on a light note to promote an influencer, but the use of fake accounts is not as simple as it looks to a normal user of any social media platform.
Proper research has shown that many fake accounts have been used in conspiring against Pakistan and our state institutions. This has a proper network consisting of people who take intentional steps using these fake accounts with an objective to purposely target the state intuitions, impersonating to be someone else on their accounts.
During the current political instability and crisis, this problem of fake accounts which was not considered to be a serious threat to the integrity of our country has taken this spread of hateful sentiments to another level.
They have joined the ongoing organic campaigns by the general public and have added a taste of negative opinions and sentiments of extreme hate. They try to put up things on social media that create extreme negative sentiments in the general public of Pakistan, in the past fake accounts and their impact is often understated especially in Pakistan.
These fake accounts aim to manipulate news and narratives which is extremely dangerous as it results in the general public losing trust in their own state.
This will eventually result in a situation of anarchy, and will only be profitable only for those who want to spread lawlessness and critical situation in Pakistan which will impact the overall, economic, political, and societal peace.
Categories of Social Media Accounts Spreading Hatred
The accounts that have been manipulating news and events in a negative and hateful way are mostly imitating:
- Journalists and Foreign Social Media Influencers
- Existing State Government Officials
- Fans of Key Political Parties
These fake social media profiles are imitating themselves as real people in such a professional way that at first it is very difficult to differentiate between the fake and real account, most of the public without even verifying the authenticity of the news starts to spread false information and within no time it spreads like fire.
This eventually results in the stimulation of so many awful thoughts that people eventually end up blaming the state and institutions resulting in shaping negative opinions as general citizens.
PTI Official Exposes Fake Accounts on Twitter
Recently PTI has disowned any link to many of such accounts on their official Twitter account that are spreading hate for the state and institutions, impersonating to be part of PTI. They say that they don’t have any connection to anything these accounts have been posting.
This is the most common tactic used by these fake accounts as they use political differences in order to spread a state of chaos. Brainwashing the people who are already in support of a specific political party to satisfy their own objective of making Pakistan and its establishment look shady in the eyes of the general public, will be the cause of rebellious behavior and opinions.
Major Tactics of These Fake Accounts
- Accounts claim to be diehard fans and supporters but spread harmful and manipulated narratives.
- All the accounts follow a similar pattern of spreading and amplifying a dividing narrative within institutions and making political personalities face controversies over the spread of a polarizing narrative.
- Accounts with proven fake names and profile pictures of known influencers and celebrities to make their messages more convincing.
Manipulative Use of Social Media
Social media is now a platform of cheap, manipulative, and polarizing journalism by such fake accounts which promote narratives that are fed by some other sources.
These sources may vary but one thing remains common that is the pattern of spreading dividing narratives among the state institutions and political parties. The sources might be external forces that want a divided Pakistan, failing as a state politically and economically.
Even the social media platforms are unable to get rid of these fake accounts and their spread of hateful sentiments not just for Pakistan but this a global issue for all countries.
Their impact is highlighted most in Pakistan due to the regime change of PTI’s leader Imran Khan. The general public is in an aggressive mode already and such fake accounts are taking advantage of the current scenario to the maximum.
Elon Musk even waited to lock the deal to buy twitter till it catered the issue of bot accounts
Spreading Narratives Regarding Pakistan Despite Being Foreign
These assessments are based on research and analytics which show the negative and polarized use of these fake accounts. These are some activities that spread polarized political narratives after the regime change of Imran Khan.
What do these foreign accounts have to do with any political or economic situation in Pakistan clearly they are following their personal narratives.
Some Foreign Accounts and their Posts
Polarizing Hashtags and their Analytics
There have been hashtags trending like a storm and they have been initiated by fake accounts with their own personal agenda.
Their own personal objective and narrative are to completely destroy Pakistan’s identity and integrity by using Pakistan’s own public by changing their opinion by spreading manipulative facts, making them part of the trends, and having a long-lasting impact on their opinions.
What is going to be the result? There would be a wave of aggressive people who believe everything they see on social media to be true and join this narrative of hate for Pakistan state institutions like the Pakistan Army and their leadership.
How to Deal With Manipulative Information
The users of social media have to be vigilant about the information they see on social media.
- The first and foremost step to deal with misinformation is to verify the accounts where the news or a statement is coming from.
- Secondly, you need to follow social media news networks that don’t follow the narrative of polarization, there are several news sources that only spread hate and cheap news which will only cause lawlessness.
- If you see any account impersonating someone else or you see your own fake account, report it and spread the word.
- Always keep in mind that sharing fake news, particularly which is misleading and directly maligns state institutions is a serious offense punishable under law.
- Impersonating someone on social media and committing any cybercrime can also lead to serious legal actions.
We have fought enough for this independent state of Pakistan, and at a time like this we should be uniting together in fighting the circumstances rather than fighting with each other, social media is an open platform but we should be responsible enough before spreading any sort of misinformation or anything that may ignite anarchy in the state.
History is evidence that whenever you divide you fall and whenever you unite you rise above all.
About The Author
Adeel Ayub – Digital Marketing Strategist, Strategic Communications Expert, and Entrepreneur runs a marketing agency. He can be reached on Twitter at @adeelawanpk.
