More than alike

 BY NIDA AFAQUE

In the history of mankind,people have chosen various ways to express discontent against the prevailing social,political and economic regimes. Some have been covert in nature while others have been more overt like mass protests and destruction of public property. Nowadays,a new kind of activism is emerging through the internet. Many people,especially the youth,are using technology as a platform to discuss and debate affirmative action against social injustices.

This trend has been picked up in Pakistan in the recent years. A wide range of issues are addressed;be those political like the reinstatement of the chief justice,or social like “Taking out the Trash” project under the label of “Zimmedar Shehri”. The logistics and schedules of events are largely if not completely communicated through the social media.

Many people do not pay too much attention to online activism and dismiss it as another pastime for the youth. After all,the outreach of this kind of activity seems severely limited in a country like Pakistan where only a small minority has access to computers and the internet. Those who do have these facilities may still stay clear from this activity since it is hard to trust anyone over the internet. For example,security arrangements have to be considered before attending a protest.

So how effective has internet activism been in Pakistan? How far has it encouraged real action like travelling to a community to educate their children or distributing food rations amongst the poor? Or do people really think that a like on Facebook by a Pakistani transform into a drop of water for a thirsty Sudanese?

Believe it or not,an increasing number of people use this as a way to stay abreast with local and global events. In many cases it has provided new points of view or news that has been poorly documented. So in an indirect way,it helps to increase transparency. Government and law enforcement officials are becoming more and more wary of the social media. The bakery beating incidence,Malik Riaz’s doctored “live” interview are some examples of the outreach this can have.  Contemporary politicians like Imran Khan have even started using this to propagate their ideas and improve their voter base.

As examples from the Arab Spring have shown,the internet and social media have an important role in facilitating national reforms. It is probably because of this fear of losing control over the propagation of news that governments across the world including Pakistan have tried to limit the content available online. It has taken steps to even forcefully shut down sites sparking a debate over censorship and freedom of speech. A “National Level URL Filtering and Blocking System”capable of blocking up to 50 million web pages was even proposed. Even more worrisome was that there was no transparent mechanism to ban web sites. Pakistan Telecommunication Authority apparently did not have proper legislative authority to ban sites.

Proponents of cyber freedom continue to stress on social media’s power of exposing hidden truths as well has its ability to clarify and quell outrages. Many scholars and academics tried to direct the anger Muslims felt against the recent anti-Islam video by advocating peaceful and more effective means of protest through Facebook and Twitter. The way the “Clean up Project for Peace” was able to garner support and execute a useful project in major cities of Pakistan all through the social media was commendable. It proved that the youth were willing to work to improve their living conditions if an organized effort was made.

The internet may not be available to most people in Pakistan but online activism could be the only way now to persuade the elite youth with financial and educational resources to take action against social inequality and injustices happening in their society. In pursuing censorship,the government should not lose sight of the real goal behind online activism:promoting civilian participation. Activists from the Arab Spring movement had been preparing for the revolutions for months on end. They took help from Italian anarchist groups to set up their ICT systems. And what was the focus? Lessons learned from the Twitter Revolution in Iran,and standards to be set for future movements. Such ideas of internet activism are neither novel nor impossible for Pakistani activists to implement.  Already emerging parties led by the youth have set up Twitter,Facebook,Reddit and Digg accounts to push their agendas forward. The movements are small,but not insignificant,leading one to see that some form of civil mobilization through online action is possible. The question remains,what direction can these movements take? What will the action focused on? Annihilation of the system as we know it? Or small,persistent changes? How long will that process take and can we really wait too long before the pressure cooker bursts?