Digital War in Naya Pakistan

This is an era of digital media. It has become one of the most powerful weapons used by the governments nowadays. It is greatly influencing the policies and the policy makers sitting in powerful corridors worldwide. Just before the 59th US quadrennial presidential election held in 2020, there was a big war between Donald Trump and his opponents. A major portion of the war was fought on digital media. Trump’s Facebook, Insta-gram and twitter accounts were suspended and the suspension is still active.
This digital media is playing a huge role in diplomacy these days. Twitter is the most active and vital part in digital diplomacy. YouTube is the most important video based platform in the world. Countries are using twitter and YouTube to expand and extend their agendas. Pakistan and India are famous and active opponents of each other since their births. Both countries have been trying to undermine each other. Since the arrival of the digital world, the two are trying to fight the war on this platform too.
YouTube administration terminated 20 YouTube channels of Pakistani influencers on Indian complaints in December, 2021. Some of those were restored later after the efforts of the Pakistani government. YouTube channels of Najam Ul Hassan Bajwa and Zain Ali were among these famous channels which got restored. In January this year, the In-dian government again became active against Pakistani content crea-tors. 35 YouTube channels and 2 websites were banned in India. Their streams cannot be seen within Indian territory. One thing is common in all channels and websites which are banned and that is “their Indian centric content.” All were those which talked about India and brutalities in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kash-mir. Faisal Tarar Speaks, Maleeha Hashmey, Haqeekat ki Dunia, Mera Pakistan With Shahab, Sajid Gondal and DNow were among the famous YouTube channels which were banned to stream in India by the Indian government.
Some websites, twitter and Instagram accounts were also banned by the Indian government. The Twitter account of journalist Abid Andleeb also got suspended by the twitter administration on Indian requests.
The Pakistani government has established a Digital Media Wing in the Press Information Department which is looking into these crucial matters of banning Pakistani content in India. PTI’s government is much more powerful in handling digital media as compared to the previous ones. The prime minister’s focal person on digital media, Dr Arslan Khalid is trying to bring these social media giants to Pakistan. If the government gets success in it, a great impact will be seen. Until then, Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir and Indian brutalities is weaker.
UMER INAM,
Lahore