Uninterrupted internet access integral for transparent elections

On January 7, access to major social media platforms, including X/ Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, faced disruption nationwide. No notice or acknowledgement was issued by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority or any relevant authority. However, as has often been the case with shutdowns and disruptions to the internet, users were quick to recognise the now-familiar pattern — social media websites are largely inaccessible, unless through virtual private networks, whenever the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf holds a virtual event. The disruption was similarly witnessed three weeks ago on December 17, when the PTI held a virtual jalsa. This time it was the party’s virtual telethon.

During the 2018 elections, there were no large-scale shutdowns but mobile phone internet remained suspended in parts of Balochistan and ex-FATA region before and during the elections on account of "security concerns". Furthermore, the website of the Awami Workers Party was blocked a month before the elections. We could see similar security concerns being used to justify both localised and larger-scale shutdowns as the country has seen a spike in terrorist attacks. Internet shutdowns in and around elections have been deployed by authoritarian governments across the world. After the prolonged mobile internet shutdown in May 2023, these concerns are ever-present for elections.

For many, this is a continuation of the censorship and denial of a "level playing field" meted out to the PTI in other spaces. In the past few months, the party has been barred from contesting as a party under its 'bat' symbol, suffered incarceration of its top leadership and been denied coverage in the mainstream media to the point that some anchorpersons have refrained from uttering Imran Khan’s name. While these violations have garnered outrage from the party, digital censorship and its impact on electoral freedoms have not received the same attention.

In the last decade, there has been an explosion of access to digital spaces — as of November 2023, Pakistan has 129 million broadband subscribers (54% of the population), according to the PTA. Concurrently, political actors have developed digital organising and communications infrastructures consisting of social media cells and more informal digital networks used to disseminate party messaging and propaganda. While the extent and exact nature of this infrastructure is unclear as political parties are not required to disclose their digital media assets and operations, it is safe to say that all major political parties have invested extensively in digital media campaigning.

Uninterrupted internet access will be integral in ensuring a transparent and fair electoral process. Online platforms are the first place citizens and candidates turn to when they wish to document and raise alarm regarding election irregularities.

This campaigning, however, occurs in the larger context of limited internet freedoms and an online discourse heavily policed by stringent online laws and disinformation networks. For instance, the PTA reported that it blocked 1.1 million uniform resource locators (URLs). Digital spaces are a double-edged sword for parties like the PTI, in the face of a media blackout and intimidation by the state, online spaces are often the only avenue where they can lodge their protest and document the harassment experienced by them. On the other hand, these platforms are also the site of digital surveillance and harassment, which has exposed digital media heads of the party to arbitrary detentions and harassment. Between 2022 and 2023, several members of PTI’s digital media wing have been picked up or had to face charges of "anti-state" online speech.

As physical rallies, corner meetings and workers’ conventions are facing bans and crackdowns by district administrations across the country, the use of digital jalsas is largely an innovation borne out of desperation. The PTI has always been a trailblazer in its embrace of social media and technologies. Its deployment of emerging technology was on display when it used artificial intelligence to deliver a speech by former prime minister, Imran Khan, who is currently behind bars. As a first mover, it is important for the PTI to be more thoughtful about how it uses a technology; while it is praise-worthy that the party was transparent about the role of AI in generating the video, opening the floodgates of using synthetic AI for its content could backfire with malicious actors producing deep-fakes of its leaders to spread disinformation at scale.

This burden, however, is not PTI’s alone. None of the mainstream political parties seem to have a forward-looking approach to the responsible use of technology. None have included ethical use of technology as part of their election manifestos. The Election Commission of Pakistan has also adopted technologies at a glacial pace. It has yet to comment on blatant forms of pre-electoral online censorship like the throttling experienced last Sunday. The ECP has issued a code of conduct for political parties, candidates and media, encompassing digital platforms for the first time, that reinforces the restrictive speech parameters enshrined in our laws rather than upholding digital freedoms, access to information and guardrails against censorship.

Uninterrupted internet access will be integral in ensuring a transparent and fair electoral process. Online platforms are the first place citizens and candidates turn to when they wish to document and raise alarm regarding election irregularities. Going forward, it is in the best interest of the party that comes to power, and the voting public, to think seriously about election integrity in the digital context. Given the short-sightedness of most political actors, this might be wishful thinking.

The writer is a researcher and campaigner on human and digital rights issues. 

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this piece are the writer's own and don't necessarily reflect Geo.tv's editorial policy.

Originally published in TNS