Advocacy organisation Digital Rights Foundation (DRF), in its latest report has uncovered widespread disinformation and technology-facilitated gender based violence (TFGBV) during the Election 2024 campaign.
DRF’s report ‘Platforms at the Polls: Disinformation, Political Ads & Accountability during the 2024 Pakistan General Elections’ said that there was “rampant disinformation and harmful content on major social media platforms in the run-up to the general elections in February 2024”.
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The report includes an examination of 225 posts on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), between November 2023 to March 2024. DRF also found a significant disparity in the platforms’ approaches to content violations in Pakistan, as compared to Global North territories.
A statement released by DRF said that there was a deluge of harmful content on major social media platforms around elections, along with a rise in TFGBV. Deepfake photos and videos of women, primarily female journalists and politicians, were made and posted during the campaign season.
Out of the 225 posts examined by the report, 163 fell under the category of gendered disinformation. The remaining posts were comprising of “broader disinformation, misinformation, fake news, Generative AI and hate speech,” DRF said.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz was at the receiving end of the highest number of this gendered disinformation campaign. Female leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) were also subjected to this digital violence.
“At least 47 posts targeted journalists covering the elections, subjecting them to gendered insults and online trolling campaigns that included online threats of physical assault. Also among the victims were ethnic indigenous and transgender communities,” DRF report said.
DISPARITY IN SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDELINES ENFORCEMENT
“Though the platforms under review list comprehensive policies pertaining to electoral information integrity on their websites, DRF report notes that platforms’ readiness concerning content moderation around elections in Pakistan and other South Asian countries was not sufficient.
The report said, “Given that social media platforms have clear, wide-ranging and overarching policies and community guidelines, this inability to tackle or control material that violates those guidelines and policies is hence deeply concerning.”
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Another think uncovered by the report is the advertisement amounts spent by different political parties on social media campaigns. DRF has unveiled that the major political parties in the country collectively spend over Rs54 million on Facebook and Instagram advertisements. PTI spent Rs25 million, its offshoot Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) spent Rs13 million, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) spent Rs6 million, PPP spent Rs5 million, and PML-N clocked in Rs0.79 million.
DRF report said that other than Meta (Facebook and Instagram), other social media platforms were not forthcoming about the advertising spent of the Pakistani political parties.
THE FLIPSIDE
One good thing, however, that did come out of the digital space after Elections 2024 was the accountability factor for Returning Officers (ROs). When the results tabulations became controversial, the images of Form 47 from multiple polling stations began circulating on social media.
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After the elections, Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) also released a report detailing how the ROs did not adhere to the legal requirements in results tabulations. A statement released by FAFEN on February 12, 2024 had said, “FAFEN urges the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take notice of non-compliance” by the ROs, adding, “This non-compliance has overshadowed an otherwise largely controversy-free voting and counting processes at the polling stations.”
While social media may be an indispensable tool for election campaigns and information dissemination, the absence of effective enforcement of digital laws – both by the platforms and under Pakistan’s digital protection laws – can ultimately do more harm than benefit.