WEAPONISATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA: A THREAT TO PAKISTAN’S NATIONAL SECURITY

Abstract

As the world progresses and develops in terms of economy, military, and technology, so do the battlegrounds of warfare. Information warfare has recently gained an unusual criticality through multiple instruments. One of these instruments is the social media platforms. It is being weaponised by certain quarters to undermine the country's peace, stability and progress. Weaponisation of social media means using and abusing social media data, involving wrong interpretation, spinning the information, and manipulating the facts against the state and society to deteriorate social cohesion, political stability, and economic progress. The resultant vectors of
this, if not addressed, are unending propaganda, polarised society, radicalisation, extremist orientation and a protracted cycle of internal instability and even violence. Therefore, a combination of kinetic and non-kinetic means with social media as the key enabler of Fifth Generation Warfare is unfolding in a complex manner owing to hostile actors such as India, Tehrik-Taliban-Pakistan (TTP), BLA
and others. Moreover, unfortunately, the country’s political leadership is not manifesting the required political maturity to counter the situation's potential challenges. The paper seeks to deconstruct the linkage of social media and Pakistan's national security by identifying the gaps in the policies regarding infrastructure and implementation, which are the significant findings. The paper
employed qualitative thematic analysis methodology with secondary data sources and grounded on Social Constructivism and Securitization Theories by triangulating the collected data.