Around the world, disinformation and misinformation have caused significant damage to many states. It has been a dire contemporary issue in Pakistan, mostly linked with a country’s security and stability. With the evolution of mass media to new social media era, this issue has exacerbated. In every generation, it was necessary to control the dissemination of intelligence and information to the public. This need arose from the necessity of political stability. But the advent of social media has drawn attention to a holistic setup to deal with data forging and mishandling.
Disinformation is deliberately fabricated information whose motive is inflicting harm to other parties, making money or creating a political influence. On the other hand, misinformation also is a form of false information. But here the propagator does not “intentionally” know the authenticity of the information. He/she does not realize that this content could be misleading, so they share it and often cause collective harm to society. There is yet another form called malinformation which is not false but a genuine piece of information. Malinformation is genuine but is propagated to cause harm to others.
The impact of mis/dis-information can be seen as a consequence of Hitler’s propagation of Nazi campaigns at the end of first world war. Hitler saw information as a powerful tool to suppress enemy agendas. He knew that information whether true or false could alter political agendas. He also acknowledged that any information when repeatedly bombarded over public will set in their minds as a fact as we witnessed in aftermath of 9/11. Islamophobia was spread throughout the west and Muslims there suffered a lot. Hitler acknowledged that controlling media was far more significant than controlling military or economy. Hitler thought that it was “good fortune for government that people do not think.” In his era, it could be a good fortune, but now it has become a calamity. Fake news have caused immense damage to the political structures and security of many states. It leads to anxiety and chaos among masses.
Fake news can be propagated through main-stream media or social media. It is essential for governments to handle the dissemination of such news. In Pakistan, PEMRA is responsible for controlling disinformation on main-stream media. A total of 142 public-private channels come under its authority which can easily be monitored. Whereas, on the other hand, millions of users of various social media platforms are extremely difficult to discipline under one law or authority.
Mostly, the issue of freedom of expression arises in this regard. People need to understand the true meaning of freedom of expression in Pakistan before delving into the solutions to dis/mis-information. Freedom of expression is granted under international law enforced by International Court of Justice to every individual. Pakistan, being a part of ICJ, also has the duty to ensure freedom of expression to its citizens. But municipal or state law comes prior to international law due to absolute sovereignty of state. Constitution of Pakistan very clearly states in Article 19 “Freedom of speech: Every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, and there shall be freedom of the press, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defense of Pakistan or any part thereof, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, commission of or incitement to an offence.” The mention of “restrictions” implies a restrictive freedom of expression for the citizens especially in accordance with security and foreign policies of the country. So, under constitution of Pakistan, any statement against the security premises or international relations disruptions or a contempt of court etc. are ruled out. This does not mean that in Pakistan grievances are unheard. There are proper channels for them which are not part of discussion.
To curb the impact of fake propagation’s, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MoIB) had created a twitter account for “fact-check” which is “@FactCheckerMoIB”. It posts fake news on this handle as shown in figure. Uploading a screenshot and labelling it as fake does not fulfill the motive, it does not provide a setup. In addition, Pakistan has other fact checking services. Among them only two are credible: Agency France-Presse global fact-checking operations and Soch Fact Check independently operated by Pakistanis. Both follow International Fact Checking Network (IFCN) guidelines. If we compare these numbers with India, they have 14 of such organisations. Political fact-checks in Pakistan are often blurred due to fear of trolling and political targeting. Moreover, in Pakistan video witnesses often lack identifiable detailing, maps and various other tools. So, fact-check is mostly relied on local journalists rather than advanced tools. Fact-checks can be improved by proper trainings and guidelines and then can be an optimal solution.
Comparatively, in the US, due to issues arising from ensuring freedom of speech and expression, an act was passed. Under article 230 of Communications Decency Act, the user himself is alleged for spreading fake information rather than the social media platforms. In this sense, under this law social media owners get immunity. Therefore, they do not actively try to counter this propagation. There must be provisions to get them under law and derive ways to counter propaganda. With this, we conclude that accountability of social media platforms is equally important, and they should also face legal repercussions.
In Pakistan, under Ministry of information technology and telecommunication, social media rules are drafted. Under these rules, social media platforms are required to remove any content hostile to the “restrictions” imposed under article 19. Under such rules, service providers and social media companies are legally bound. Yet this scenario is absent practically. In last two years, we have seen users to be alleged for their content and no efforts had been seen to render service providers accountable for lacking effective measures to discipline information based on the guidelines provided in that Gazette published in 2020. In addition, to restrict disclosure of fake information, government of Pakistan has installed firewall. How does a firewall works? Firewall detects, restricts and blocks any content which is a propaganda. It creates a virtual geographical boundary and filters content as shown in figure. For example, the Great Firewall of China blocks the use of YouTube, Facebook and other such websites. In Pakistan, X is banned this year and it is unreachable by most users.
Facebook started its content management in 2019. Facebook disrupts advertisements to fake accounts and has inculcated fact-checks through third-party organisations. It mostly depends on community feedback to remove specified content. Twitter then adopted a similar strategy of labelling as shown in figure which witnessed 17% increase in user engagement.
Besides, twitter has also launched “birdwatch” program. Here also the users identify misleading content which has led to less effectiveness among them due to birdwatch notes appearing often. Twitter also has started categorizing contents based on algorithms. For example, during recent middle east conflict, keywords such as Gaza genocide etc. were deemed as misleading and were removed. Therefore, we can say that these social media platforms are, nonetheless, putting some efforts. But these efforts need serious attention for effectiveness.
In Pakistan, unfortunately population is not digitally literate which poses another factor acting as a barrier. An experiment by Ali & Qazi (2021) advocated this fact. They took 750 subjects in urban Lahore and divided the experiment into two educational interventions and educated them differently on recognition of misinformation. In first intervention they provided a general information video to detect misinformation which had a lesser impact. At second intervention they were provided with information and later provided personalized feedbacks. It had a promising result as people were able to relate personally and could identify various news.
We have only seen systematic correction or identification of misinformation. There can be other methods which can be used to curb misleading news. For example, at local level, it should be a priority of local governments to be active communicators. Local governments must try acting before the information is propagated. A timely and effective measure in the need of time. This step could stop the spread of a harmful or fake content. Next governments should focus on forging public opinions. Every community has trusted members who can work with governments to testify the falsifications of a news. These people are reliable for the public and can amplify public opinions. Education and awareness in this context are also considerable solutions. In Canada, education on identification of such content has become part of curriculum. This awareness is very significant for the common public to detect distinction. Therefore, in Pakistan, mis/dis-information should be added in curriculum to inculcate students with more brainstorming when reading a content on various media platforms.
Whatever the setup, it should be noted that freedom of expression and access to information, whether restricted or fully implemented, must be ensured. No one authority must be authorised enough to remove contents deliberately on will. Only those contents must be checked whose authenticity is questioned or which are against the above mentioned “restrictions” in Pakistan. A holistic setup is needed. Collaboration between fact-check organisations, social media platforms, public and government institutions is needed. Moreover, a more technical approach with enough education and awareness is needed to handle social media posts and misinformation in them. Nevertheless, all these solutions are only possible through the public’s consent and capability. Therefore, governments must strive to enhance their education regarding mis/dis-information and its propagation.
She is a young and passionate researcher aspiring to produce in-depth papers dealing with International Relations and conflict studies confined in the most diverse Middle East region.
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