Political exploitation of social media
Social media is the most digitized and fast version of media which has replaced conventional media due to its wide audience, deep reach, and fast method of spread but along with many perks, social media has brought evils of false information, propaganda, bullying, and hate speeches. The field that has exploited social media the most is politics. Political actors whether local or international use social media to tarnish their counterparts whether they are from the locality or stakeholders of other states. That is why these days major wars are being fought on social media rather than on the field between major superheroes.
Similar is the situation in Pakistan. Propaganda spreads like fire because people like harangue speeches, baseless allegations, slogans for change, sympathy through religious sentiments, and social media activism. Everyone wants to be a journalist on their own by creating and sharing the content of his will. Politicians have exploited this nature of people and fast fast-spreading characteristic of social media. To win a place in people’s hearts, they have used social media to earn sympathy by posting religious and humanitarian versions of them, by tarnishing other politicians through allegations that find no base, and by making change slogans. This is the situation where political actors have created polarization in the country via social media.
Today, If you are a Pakistani and a regular user of social media you will see a hysteric situation where every political party has diverted their attention from conventional advertisement and focused on social media campaigning. The reason behind this is the success story of PTI who have earned great support among the populace due to strong social media advertisement. In the last election, the party was deprived of its electoral symbol, and its leader and no political campaign was allowed. The party used social media only for campaigning and resultingly managed to get sympathy. Although the party was not declared victorious due to political wheedling but voters' turn out and vigour clearly showing who they want to be in premier position.
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Another example of political social media exploitation is the grave situation in Balochistan. Local politicians are doing politics on the squalor situation of their people. Although the state is responsible for many problems but
Social media is being used by forces to tarnish the image of Pakistan and provoke the people of Pakistan against Pakistan. By propagandizing everything and by making hues and cries, they divert attention from real the culprits and create a hysterical situation on social media where everyone turns against the state without verifying for a second even.
Social media is now a major factor in shaping one’s political views. A person starts believing what is shown to him often. And the algorithm of social media is such that it shows us more of what we see by reading our attitudes. In this wqy only one side image of anything comes before us and we start believing it. There used to be a factcheck in social media but it has been removed. Now social media has turned into a wildfire from a light that bring chaos rather than sweet warmth if left unchecked.
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