by Muhammad Tahir
ISLAMABAD, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Social media is playing an increasingly important role in world politics with its typical example being U.S. President Donald Trump who always unveil his policies through social media.
As Pakistan joined the 3G in 2014 for the first time, politicians and their supporters are utilizing the channels to cast their influence, especially on the eve of the July 25 general elections.
Sabookh Sayed, a social activist, said the social media is playing a very important role for projection, publicity and counter measures in political circle in Pakistan nowadays. Sayed, who heads an Urdu-language website, told Xinhua on Thursday that politicians and their parties are using social media to reach people nationwide.
According to the state-owned Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, with the introduction of the faster mobile internet connection in Pakistan, the smartphone market is rapidly expanding. The advantage also brings more mobile phone users.
Currently there are about 150 million cellular subscribers in Pakistan, among which 55 million have 3G/4G facility which help them access the internet and social media.
Targeting the huge amount of population who enjoy 3G/4G network, political leaders and their offices now make special social media accounts to share their policies, decisions and future plans in efforts to influence public opinion in their favor ahead of the upcoming parliamentary polls. The social media could save a lot for the politician's pockets, compared to the costly advertisements on TV channels and newspapers.
"Those parties which do not get time on mainstream media mainly focus on social media and now religious parties have formed special teams and wings to effectively use the social media," Sayed said.
For instance, Imran Khan, chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, has 8.09 million followers on Twitter. The cricket-turned-politician is seen very active on social media to issue policy statements and criticize political rivals.
Another political leader from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, has 4.77 million followers and is also actively using Twitter to post statements and react to criticism by political rivals. She has posted 60 thousands tweets since she has joined Twitter in 2012.
Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto, having 2.75 million followers, use Twitter for election campaign and his video message for election drive has been watched by nearly 40,000 people in just four days.
Mian Asif, another active social activist, said that "social media users sometimes mount pressure on key state institutions, either to take notice of issues or withdraw decisions if there is criticism."
Asif, who also regularly writes online, told Xinhua that social media also helps those political and religious leaders who face some restrictions on the mainstream media.
However, there are also lots of complaints about the misuse of social media ahead of the general elections. Facebook said earlier in an official statement that it is working in collaboration with the Election Commission of Pakistan to further understand and address the specific challenges in the country and gear up its efforts to prevent abuse.
According to the statement, the company will be taking steps ahead of the July 25 election to curb false news on its website. According to the company, a combination of technology and human review would be used to combat fake news and prevent misinformation from spreading during the election period.
