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December 20, 2024
The Digital Rights Foundation (DRF)’s latest report “Platforms At The Polls: Disinformation, Political Ads & Accountability During The 2024 Pakistan General Elections” found rampant disinformation and harmful content on major social media platforms in the run-up to the country’s recent general elections in February 2024. Focusing on TikTok, Facebook/Instagram, Youtube, and X (formerly Twitter), the report noted a significant disparity in the platforms’ approaches to content violations in Pakistan, compared to Global North territories.
There was a deluge of harmful content on major social media platforms around elections, with a rise in technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) and deepfake visuals being used against women in the public sphere such as journalists and politicians. DRF analysed 225 posts by users across different platforms from November 2023 to March 2024. 163 of those posts fell under the category of gendered disinformation, with the rest under broader disinformation, misinformation, fake news, Generative AI and hate speech. PML-N faced the largest number of gendered disinformation posts (76), which primarily targeted PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, followed by PTI (61), and PPP (19). Furthermore, 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 (13 posts).
Though the platforms under review list comprehensive policies pertaining to electoral information integrity on their websites, DRF notes that platforms’ readiness concerning content moderation around elections in Pakistan and other South Asian countries was not sufficient. 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. For instance, there needed to be more transparency from most platforms regarding money spent on political advertisements around the 2024 General Elections. DRF found that major political parties spent a collective PKR 54 million, or USD 190,000, on running ads for their political campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. The largest spender was Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), with PKR 25 million, followed by the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) at PKR 13 million, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) at PKR 6 million, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) at PKR 5 million, and Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) at PKR 0.79 million. It is worth noting that only Meta (Facebook, Instagram) was transparent about the amount political parties, or accounts supportive of them, had spent on the elections. No other social media platform offered any details regarding ad expenditures by political parties.
According to DRF Executive Director Nighat Dad, “The electoral integrity upheld by social media platforms is crucial to maintaining democratic norms, as evidenced this year. However, we have also witnessed serious offline consequences when these platforms are not fully equipped to tackle the spread of disinformation, particularly when they fail to address election-related information manipulation in a timely and effective manner.” In order to tackle disinformation and gender-based violence during elections and other political or social events, tech companies must uphold information integrity to ensure consistent fair election practices across the globe, especially in the Global Majority.
The full report is available to read at https://staging-m.digitalrightsfoundation.pk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Platforms-at-the-Polls.pdf
Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) is a research and advocacy organisation that strives to raise awareness about human rights and responsible use of technology in the digital realm. Since its inception in 2012, DRF has been extensively involved in global and regional advocacy on a range of digital rights issues including on data privacy, cyber harassment, rise of online disinformation and hate speech and social impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence.
For more information log on: www.digitalrightsfoundation.pk
Contact
Nighat Dad
nighat@digitalrightsfoundation.pk
Seerat Khan
seerat@digitalrightsfoundation.pk
Maheen Rasheed
maheen@digitalrightsfoundation.pk
For press/media inquiries: communications@digitalrightsfoundation.pk
