Hate Content On Social Media

By Amir Zia
November 2020

Monthly Hilal 

Hate content, which can never, ever pass the stringent filters of the traditional media even today, spreads like wildfire on the social media. And the irony is that authorities and regulators can do little to curb it in a timely manner.  

Dissemination of hate content on the social media has remained a lingering challenge for Pakistan. But in recent weeks and months, there has been a sharp surge in the availability of such material on various social media platforms. 
Short video clips, ridiculing and attacking religious beliefs, sacred personalities and customs of one or the other sect are being widely and systematically circulated on social media in an attempt to stoke sectarian hate and violence in the country. At times, video clips from the speeches of prominent religious scholars and clerics are edited in such a way that they appear to convey totally the opposite of what was actually said. Again the aim is to widen fissures among Muslim sects and pitch their zealots against one another. 
Just ahead of Muharram – the first month of the Muslim calendar – ‘hate trends’ were created on Twitter condemning and calling for action against a particular sect. Similar counter trends and provocative defiant messages were hurled from the other side too. 
Some clerics added fuel to the fire through their insensitive, controversial and hateful remarks, which were disseminated by their friends and foes alike on the social media. 
The communication revolution and social media platforms indeed serve as a blessing for a vast majority of people, who use them to communicate with their loved ones, build groups of like-minded individuals for different causes, share information, to educate, to learn and build and expand their businesses. But the biggest downside of these platforms remains the free-flow of hate material that threatens the very fabric of many of the ethnically and religiously heterogeneous societies, including that of Pakistan. 
Hate content, which can never, ever pass the stringent filters of the traditional media even today, spreads like wildfire on the social media. And the irony is that authorities and regulators can do little to curb it in a timely manner.  
Indeed, the challenge of curbing hate-material is a complicated one. It is like a double-edged sword which can cut both ways. For those who hold freedom of expression close to their heart, any attempt to regulate social media platforms means a direct assault on their fundamental rights. The small, but organized and influential minority of activists remain skeptical of any legislation aimed at regulating the new media platforms and say that the government will ‘exploit’ it to stifle what they call the legitimate voice of dissent in the country.
But even a bigger challenge than these activists are the giant global social media platforms. They operate from abroad and have little regard for Pakistani laws and cultural and religious sensitivities. They may cooperate with Pakistan’s request on blocking a certain post or they may choose to sleep over it for a while or ignore it altogether. The decision and the power to act is in their hands. 
The huge quantum of hate-material churned out on an hourly and daily basis also makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the authorities to identify each and every such post and raise red-flag with the concerned social media company in a prompt manner. By the time authorities move against any hate-post, the damage in most cases has already been done. 
Then, there are many other “ifs” and “buts” in dealing with global social media giants, some of whom now operate regional offices from India – a traditional foe. Obviously, when Indians are working for these social media platforms, they are the ones who call the shots in certain cases or at least are responsible for the execution of decisions, especially regarding the blocking of hate and religiously sensitive material and anti-Pakistan content. Yet, at the same time, they are fast in suppressing any voices, which highlight the legitimate freedom struggle in the occupied Kashmir, and the plight and targeting of Muslims living in India by the extremist Hindu nationalists. 
The huge clout of these companies, which operate under the umbrella of Asia Internet Coalition (AIC), has made framing and implementation of effective social media rules difficult. Facebook, Twitter, Google, Airbnb, Amazon, Apple, Expedia, LinkedIn, LINE and Rakuten – the member companies of the AIC – have so far ignored Pakistan’s requests that they open their regional offices here. At the same time, these companies have by-and-large showed an insensitivity towards Pakistani concerns regarding the use of their platforms by the extremist elements. 
According to Maulana Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, chief of the All Pakistan Ulema Council and special representative to the prime minister on religious harmony, the “misuse of social media poses a greater threat to the state compared to enemy tanks, missiles and other sophisticated weapons.”
“The irresponsible use of the social media is putting relations among the followers of various sects at stake,” he said.
And Maulana Ashrafi’s concerns have solid grounds. 
For instance, during last Muharram Pakistani authorities identified a sectarian hate trend, which was promoted by more than 5,000 users. On investigating, it was found out that only 70 of the 5,000 users fanning this trend were operating from Pakistan, while the rest were from abroad, especially India. But the target users of this trend were Pakistanis and the aim was to trigger a conflict among followers of different sects. 
This is what is being defined by the security experts as the hybrid war, which has been imposed on Pakistan by its enemies with an aim to sow confusion and division among Pakistanis in a way that it results in violence, chaos, anarchy and instability within the country. And many Pakistanis facilitate the enemy objectives by design or default. Their words become their actions. 
For example, the All Pakistan Ulema Council forwarded to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority a list of 100 or so YouTube channels which were involved in fanning hate on sectarian and religious ground. But, according to Maulana Ashrafi, the PTA expressed its limitations in dealing with such material effectively as it remains the prerogative of the YouTube if and when they remove such content. 
“Freedom of speech is important… but it does not mean attacking and ridiculing other peoples’ beliefs, customs and sacred personalities,” Maulana Ashrafi said.
In the same spirit, Prime Minister Imran Khan on October 25 wrote a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, to ban Islamophobia just as it banned questioning or criticizing of the holocaust. “Given the rampant abuse and vilification of Muslims on social media platforms, I would ask you to place a similar ban on Islamophobia and hate against Islam for Facebook that you have put in place for the Holocaust. The message of hate must be banned in total…”, Prime Minister Khan wrote. 
While there is a broader issue of Islamophobia and hate material against Muslims, which has a potential of leading to active hostilities and violence, Pakistan’s immediate challenge is also to curb the use of social media which is being used to incite sectarian hate and violence. 
How to meet the challenge of unsocial, extremist and criminal attitudes and activities on the social media? Finding an answer to this question is easier said than done. 
To begin with, the government must expedite framing of the social media rules, which remain pending since February this year when Prime Minister Khan directed the Information Technology Ministry to initiate this process. 
The government would have to adopt a multi-pronged strategy to streamline the social media that must include incentives for the global companies to open shop in Pakistan as well as bringing their income under the tax net. At the same time, the government should ensure swift and efficient punitive action against those found involved in using social media platforms for fanning hate material. Right now even if laws are there against the hate-speech and misuse of social media, they are not being implemented.
If there is a need to further strengthen these laws it must be done on a war footing. Pakistan can borrow a page from Turkey on how it manages the social media, which if left unregulated, results in intensifying polarization and discord in the developing countries.   
Engaging stakeholders is important, but this engagement should be done with a firm deadline and in no way mean that the state and its institutions surrender before the organized, and in some cases, west-sponsored rights’ groups, which advocate and demand unregulated freedom on both the social and traditional media. 
The government also needs to explore the possibility of making licenses, NOCs or declaration mandatory for setting up YouTube channels and websites operating from Pakistan. Setting up a news channel or bringing out a news publication remains a lengthy and cumbersome business in Pakistan, but opening up media platforms on social media and creating websites and YouTube channels remain only a click away. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the government should make establishing the later platforms as difficult as that of traditional media, but the social media platforms need to be streamlined and regulated. At the same time, government should ensure easier processes for setting up new traditional media outlets which need to be encouraged and boosted to stand against the tide of fake news, propaganda, outright lies and hate content spread through the new media.
Freedom of expression is important, but it must come with responsibility. No one should be allowed the freedom to wreck the harmony of our society or damage the state and its institutions.

Ends

  

نیب پر تالا؟

عامرضیاء

روزنامہ 92

اتوار، 25 جولائی 2020

این ایف سی کا بھاری پتھر

عامرضیاء

روزنامہ 92

جولائی 19، 2020

حزبِ اختلاف میں اختلافات

عامرضیاء

روزنامہ 92

جولائی 12، 2020

تبدیلی کیوں نا آسکی؟

عامرضیاء

روزنامہ 92

 جولائی 6، 2020

نئے، پرُانے الزام

    

عامرضیاء

روزنامہ 92

جون 29، 2020

اٹھارہویں ترمیم پر بات کیوں نہ ہو؟

عامرضیاء

روزنامہ 92

جون 22، 2020

تالابندی کے حمایتی

عامر ضیاء

روزنامہ 92

جون اُنیس، 2020

Add caption

India’s Undeclared War

By Amir Zia
Monthly Hilal
June 2020

Indian intelligence operations in the western countries are as crucial as that of Jadhav’s in Pakistan... In major western capitals and cities including London, Paris, Washington and Berlin, and those which serve as the hub of UN activities – Brussels, Geneva and New York – Indian intelligence is working in a systematic way to achieve at least three broad goals that should concern Pakistan...

Most countries in the world try to advance their political and economic interests, and diplomatic clout in line with the internationally accepted norms, but then there are rogue states, which undermine all values and principles in the games they play. In our region, India remains the prime example of such a state that is scrambling for regional and global influence by violating international and bilateral treaties, indulging in overt and covert acts of state terrorism, intimidating and bullying its neighbours and unleashing systematic disinformation campaigns in various world capitals in an attempt to win the battle of narratives.

The tentacles of Indian network of terrorism and disinformation – both key pillars in the Fifth Generation Warfare – often get exposed also. India’s most recent setback in this game, albeit a minor one, was witnessed in Canada where authorities nabbed an Indian suspect, who was trying to influence Canadian politicians into supporting New Delhi’s policies.

According to Global News, a Canadian publication, Indian intelligence agencies – the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB) – were behind the operation, which had started in 2009. When Global News approached Public Safety Minister Bill Blair’s office, it refused to comment on the matter, but said the government was “concerned when any country shows destabilising behaviour, including interference in other countries’ democratic systems.” The suspect arrested in this connection is being referred to as ‘A.B.’ in the court records. He is the editor-in-chief of an Indian newspaper, and his wife and son are Canadian citizens, the Global News reported.

But in the broader cloak-and-dagger game, exposure or arrest of a secondary agent in a western country is a small setback. It is certainly not that kind of a blow to the Indian intelligence operations as happened in March 2016 when Islamabad announced the arrest of Kulbhushan Jadhav – a serving Indian Navy commander – involved in espionage and terrorism in Pakistan.

However, Indian intelligence operations in the western countries are as crucial as that of Jadhav’s in Pakistan.

In major western capitals and cities including London, Paris, Washington and Berlin, and those which serve as the hub of UN activities – Brussels, Geneva and New York – Indian intelligence is working in a systematic way to achieve at least three broad goals that should concern Pakistan.

Firstly, the vast Indian intelligence network is pushing New Delhi’s anti-Pakistan narrative by accusing Islamabad of sponsoring and financing terrorism and propagating against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as well as the country’s nuclear programme. The difficulties Pakistan faces at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is just one of the manifestations of the power of Indian lobbying. Though Indians have not been able to get Pakistan on the “blacklist”, they have also not let us go off the hook. Pakistan, itself the biggest victim of terrorism, will have to work hard to counter perceptions made by India in the West, where Indian-sponsored narrative has found many takers in political circles, academia and media.  

Secondly, Indian intelligence network in Europe and North America is aggressively sponsoring, financing, and organising the small dissident so-called liberal and narrow-minded ethnic and nationalist groups from Pakistan. For example, an anti-Pakistan nationalist group has a fully-funded office in Brussels where meetings and seminars are organised in support of a terrorist organisation like the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), promote anti-CPEC narrative and malign the state of Pakistan. Such groups are also financed to hold protests and set-up camps outside UN offices in Geneva and Brussels. Such activities in Europe and North America are as vital for RAW’s anti-Pakistan operations as its work inside Pakistan, using Afghanistan and Iran as jumping boards.  

Thirdly, Indian intelligence remains focused on maligning, disturbing and disrupting legitimate freedom and secessionist movements trying to end the Indian rule on their territories and those demanding equal rights or opportunities. Among such groups operating in the western countries, Kashmiris and Sikhs are the main target of Indian intelligence as well as organisations like the International Dalit Solidarity Network, which speaks against the oppressive caste system of India. In many European universities, seminars, meetings and discussions aimed at highlighting the plight of occupied territories, child labour and the caste system are discouraged due to the presence of strong pro-India lobbies comprising both Indian diaspora and the local pro-India western academics.

Needless to say, Indian intelligence and funding has played a key role in creating and sustaining such lobbies. Indian universities’ students exchange programmes with European universities are also being used for propaganda purposes.

Similarly, India has also been successful in bringing many European Union politicians into its fold through think tanks and NGOs. 

For example, last October a delegation of 27 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) went to a supervised visit of the Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. This visit raised many eyebrows in Europe as it did not include any independent and critical voices of the EU parliament, who had been demanding New Delhi to allow observers and rights activists to visit this occupied Himalayan region, especially after August 5, 2019 when New Delhi unilaterally abolished its symbolic special status guaranteed in the Indian Constitution. The unofficial EU delegation had met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi before visiting Srinagar. The trip was sponsored by the International Institute for Non-aligned Studies (IINS) – a New Delhi-based think tank, which also has offices in Brussels. IINS is owned by the Srivastava Group of Companies. This is just one instance of how India uses resource-rich think tanks to influence politicians in the West to advance its goals.

Then there are NGOs and think tanks that are apparently led by many discredited self-exiled Pakistani nationals, but in fact are funded by the Indian intelligence for anti-Pakistan activities.

Similarly, many so-called news and opinion websites are busy churning out fake content, complete lies or half-lies to support India’s anti-Pakistan effort.

In November 2019, an independent European Union NGO – EU Disinfo Lab – discovered “265 coordinated fake local media outlets that serve Indian governmental interests, among which were two Belgian ones,” The Brussels Times had reported.1

“The outlets are supposed to influence the EU and the UN to India’s advantage by repeatedly criticising Pakistan,” the paper reported quoting the EU Disinfo Lab. 

Though this Indian intelligence-linked media ring was also exposed, but this hardly affects its capacity and ability to keep doing what it has been doing. In fact, as the situation is becoming more challenging for India in the Occupied Kashmir in recent months, its security and intelligence networks have intensified anti-Pakistan propaganda and activities in Europe and North America.

The few instances of the Indian game quoted above is only the tip of the iceberg of India’s undeclared war against Pakistan, which has aggressively been launched on all fronts. The aim is to destabilize, soften and weaken Pakistan so that it can not effectively plead or fight the case of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and stand-up against India’s hegemonic designs in the region.

Compared to this holistic attack through media, NGOs, think tanks and academic institutions, the regular ceasefire violations at the Line of Control and Working Boundary in the disputed Kashmir region are a much lesser challenge for the country.

Pakistan’s civil and military leaders as well as media and academia need to analyze this growing threat and take measures to counter Indian designs on a war-footing. Countering and winning the battle of perception and narratives is now crucial for a state to ensure its unity and survival. In today’s world, a state can lose a war even before the first shot has been fired if the enemy is allowed to weave, fabricate and sell its narrative.

In this war of narratives – unlike India – Pakistan has the power of facts, truth and righteousness of cause on its side. Therefore, it will not have to create fake websites or bank on lies and deceit. But what remains amiss on the Pakistani side is direction, unity and vigor of its efforts. Pakistani media, academia and big businesses will have to act as a vanguard in this effort and support the state in this do or die conflict with our biggest enemy.

https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/belgium-all-news/78572/two-belgian-media-outlets-discovered-among-hunderds-fake-news-websites-serving-indian-interests/

ارطغرل بمقابلہ لبرل

                                                                         عامرضیاء
                                                روزنامہ 92
                                              جون 7، 2020 

چینی اژدھے کےرنگ

عامرضیاء

روزنامہ 92

 مئی 31، 2020

ایک فکری مغالطہ

                                               عامرضیاء
                                              روزنامہ 92
                                         پیر، 18 مئی 2020

قیادت کی آزمائش

عامرضیاء

روزنامہ 92

پیر، مئی 11، 2020

اختلافات کی وبا

عامرضیاء

روزنامہ 92

مئی 4، 2020

کھلاڑیوں کی تبدیلی

روزنامہ 92

اپریل 30

 2020

Rivaling the Rival

By Amir Zia

Monthly Hilal

April 2020

The majoritarian will of Hindus is articulated through Modi. In Modi, Hindus have finally found a populist strongman they had been waiting for. If it was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who first used Hindu religious symbolism laced with modern concepts of nationalism in Indian politics, and Nehru, who served the Hindu interests in the garb of secular democracy, it is now Modi, who has unapologetically come out with the extremist Hindu nationalist agenda while being in power.

For a number of educated Pakistanis, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu extremist agenda is a mere abstraction, a temporary deviation or at the most a betrayal from what they call India’s strong “secular tradition.” They are pinning hopes that Indian civil society and self-proclaimed secular political parties will be able to reassert themselves and put the world’s much-publicized largest democracy back on the track.

More or less similar sentiments are echoed by some of Pakistan’s frontline politicians, including those in power. Some of them lament the loss of “secular India” and the rise of Hindu fundamentalism in a way that it gives an impression that “once upon a time” India was a paradise for religious minorities. If you believe this flawed narrative, then it would mean that in the pre-Modi days there was no religious or ethnic persecution and violence in mainland India and no state-terrorism and exploitation in territories, which New Delhi forcibly occupied after the British left in 1947, including the occupied Himalayan region of Jammu & Kashmir.   

But we all know that facts are different.

India never was a paradise for ethnic and religious minorities or a beacon of secularism, though successive rulers in New Delhi always tried to sell this lie to the world. Yes, the malice and bite of Hindu extremism is an old story. And getting rid of this new “historical delusion” that “once upon a time secularism bloomed in India” remains a must if one wants to understand the current wave of Hindu fanaticism, its genesis and goals.

Leaders of the Indian National Congress created the myth of secularism in an attempt to inherit a united India from the British Raj. Many key Muslim leaders, including Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, were part of the movement, but they soon realized that Hindu leaders of Congress were pushing for a majoritarian rule under the garb of democracy. These Congress leaders were opposed to granting Muslims constitutional political and economic rights. This very realization resulted in March 23, 1940’s Pakistan Resolution and eventually led to the Partition of British-India and creation of a separate homeland for Muslims in their majority provinces.

Loads of historical research and first-person accounts are available, which hold myopic Hindu leaders of Congress, including Jawaharlal Nehru, responsible for the failure of efforts aimed at granting constitutional political and economic rights to the Muslims of sub-continent in a united India. In fact, Congress’ Hindu leaders schemed and plotted to establish Hindu rule in India and once they realized that this cannot be done in united India, they swallowed the bitter pill of Partition of their so-called “Bharat Mata.”

However, be it the Hindu leaders and their followers belonging to Congress or the hardcore Hindu nationalist groups such as Hindu Mahasabha and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh – they never accepted Partition. Many of their leaders at that time believed that the newly created Pakistan won’t survive and return to the Indian fold sooner than later.

Systematic massacres and ethnic cleansing of Muslims during and post Partition days demonstrated the savagery and barbarism of Hindu extremists and their allies. And even after the dust of Partition had settled, violence, discrimination and exploitation of Muslims remained a pattern in India – whether it was ruled by the so-called secular Congress or Hindu nationalists.

In fact, the protracted Kashmir conflict – the only Muslim-majority state forcibly made part of Hindu India –  is the result of Nehru’s belligerence towards Muslims as he used the façade of secularism to crush the aspirations of Kashmiri Muslims. While Kashmir was illegally occupied by the so-called secular leaders of India, they also ensured that Muslims living in Hindu-majority provinces remained marginalized and discriminated in every field – from education to jobs.  At the same time, Muslims also remained the target of hate, violence and oppression. Indeed, anti-Muslim riots and killings and discrimination did not start in India with Modi. They remained a norm under every Indian government from that of Nehru to his daughter Indira and from his grandson Rajiv Gandhi to Atal Bihari Vajpayee till the present day.

Persecution of Muslims living in India has been the unstated policy of successive Indian governments, which pursued them as a state objective. At the same time, India also remained committed and focused to harm Pakistan – from stopping the transfer of its share of funds soon after Partition to that of its role in the break-up of East Pakistan to directly resorting and sponsoring terrorism. The living proof of direct Indian involvement in terrorism in Pakistan is the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav – the Indian spy caught by Pakistani security forces in March 2016.

All the anti-Muslim policies in India were implemented under the false banner of secularism. But under Modi, the thin veneer of secularism has been scrapped and Muslim hostility of extremist Hindu-India is out in the open. This has indeed shocked a small minority of Indians, including those Hindus, who see secularism as a major force keeping together their artificial state. However, commitment to secularism is a minority view. And without any frontline committed leader to champion this cause, there are little chances that the juggernaut of Hindu extremism could be reined in from within India.

The majoritarian will of Hindus is articulated through Modi. In Modi, Hindus have finally found a populist strongman they had been waiting for. If it was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who first used Hindu religious symbolism laced with modern concepts of nationalism in Indian politics, and Nehru, who served the Hindu interests in the garb of secular democracy, it is now Modi, who has unapologetically come out with the extremist Hindu nationalist agenda while being in power. With Modi, the modern Hindu extremist politics has come full-circle. Modi thinks that he has the means and political capital to implement the declared agenda of hardline Hindu revivalists – from the controversial Indian Citizenship Law aimed at further marginalizing Muslims to that of doing away with the special constitutional status of the Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. Modi wants to fulfill his promises. He is out there to change the decade-old status quo on both domestic and the regional fronts. And conventional diplomacy and politics of wait-and-see will only help Modi to bulldoze his way through. In human history, there are countless of examples where a “wrong” has eventually become “right” due to the use of sheer force and inability of the other side to match it blow by blow. Luckily for Modi, he faces little resistance in implementing his regional and domestic agenda. As Hindu extremist goons target, persecute, humiliate, beat and kill Muslims in mainland India, the Indian forces have unleashed an unprecedented wave of terror in the occupied Kashmir which has been transformed into the world’s largest open prison. Yet, the world and the world powers watch in silence underlining the fact that morality and principles have no place in international diplomacy.

Let’s keep appealing to the world's conscience. Let’s keep applying the tools of conventional diplomacy. But this should be done with the clarity of mind that this is an activity for the sake of activity unless backed by power system. It won’t bring Modi’s India under pressure, though give us some brownie points. It won’t change the new unjust reality which Modi has managed to create using force.

It means that Muslims in India and IOJ&K will have to carry the burden of resisting and fighting Hindu extremism on their own. This is the only choice they practically have. This is the only way forward. One should not settle for a “long haul” of just offering lip service to the cause. If we do this, others will also offer only lip service. And another seven decades will pass with the blink of an eye. It is the time to turn on the heat.  Only words backed by actions bring a change.

We are not warmongers. We love peace, but what option we are left with if the other party is only focusing on our subjugation to annihilation. Muslims in India, Muslims in Occupied Kashmir and we in Pakistan – all have to rethink strategy, improve the game, get ready to exploit weaknesses and internal contradictions of the enemy and confront the bully on the front foot. We have to create the perfect moment now rather than wait for it in some distant future. Now it is the race against time. Our failure to act only emboldens Hindu extremists and give them confidence to pursue their objectives confidently. Therefore, putting a spanner in the juggernaut of Hindu extremism remains a must. And we should be ready to give the price of our actions (or inactions) and extract the same from India. 

Ends