{"id":58258,"date":"2024-02-09T23:56:04","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T23:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/fractious-poll-fertile-ground-for-disinformation-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-02-09T23:56:04","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T23:56:04","slug":"fractious-poll-fertile-ground-for-disinformation-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/fractious-poll-fertile-ground-for-disinformation-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Fractious poll fertile ground for disinformation | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nISLAMABAD:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fake boycotts and fictional ballots: a deluge of disinformation accompanied Pakistan\u2019s contentious election, with a delayed vote count underway on Friday.<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s poll is the most fraught of recent years, with ex-prime minister Imran Khan jailed and his arch-rival Nawaz Sharif appearing to be the favourite of the powerful military-led establishment.<\/p>\n

Early results show Khan’s anointed candidates faring better than expected, after a polarised campaign rife with accusations of rigging and still with no clear winner.<\/p>\n

“All different political parties made sure that they participated” in the flow of false information, Pakistan director of internet watchdog Bytes 4 All Shahzad Ahmed told AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There was also an information vacuum when authorities blocked mobile phone and data services during Thursday’s polling hours, citing security concerns a day after 28 people were killed in twin bombings claimed by the Islamic State group near candidate offices.<\/p>\n

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) were both falsely claimed to have called for election boycotts, with AFP<\/em> debunking several such posts on social media.<\/p>\n

The false boycott claims were seen by observers as apparent bids to stifle turnout of the 128 million Pakistanis eligible to vote on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Read also: Govt says 56 incidents reported on election day despite suspension of cellular services<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

One video on X — viewed nearly 130,000 times — supposedly featured PTI-backed candidate Raja Basharat relaying boycott orders from Khan because supporters were being harassed.<\/p>\n

However, Basharat has said the video was a “deepfake” fabricated by artificial intelligence and not an official statement by him.<\/p>\n

PTI had not called for a boycott and the PTI’s central information secretary Raoof Hasan told AFP<\/em> on Thursday they were urging voters to turn out.<\/p>\n

In Sharif’s case, footage was dredged up from 2007, when he pledged to sit out a vote under military ruler Pervez Musharraf, and released on TikTok with misleading context.<\/p>\n

Like his opponents, he made no such call during campaigning for the current election.<\/p>\n

Posts also claimed Pakistan’s election commission printed a huge surplus of voting slips, touting it as evidence of a plan to stuff ballot boxes and influence the outcome.<\/p>\n

“Election Commission is crossing all limits to defeat PTI,” said one such TikTok video “liked” nearly 50,000 times.<\/p>\n

However, Thursday’s election was for both national and provincial assemblies, meaning each voter was issued with two ballots.<\/p>\n

Read: <\/strong>Pakistani students see disinformation as threat to polls, democracy: study<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Pakistan’s elections have historically been subject to allegations of rigging in favour of military-backed parties.<\/p>\n

“Tactics have graduated from the crude stuffing of ballot boxes to ‘pre-poll rigging’ — short-hand for denying candidates known to be out of favour with the military room to campaign freely,” Farzana Shaikh of the Chatham House think tank wrote last week.<\/p>\n

Disinformation has also targeted the character of candidates, with PML-N video content edited and taken out of context on Facebook to give the impression of a party official comparing Sharif to God.<\/p>\n

It’s a potentially incendiary allegation in a country where blasphemy carries the death sentence and rumours of sacrilegious remarks often spark lynchings.<\/p>\n

Pakistani media also reported a viral WhatsApp message that claimed Khan masks were out of stock after selling more than a million in a single day on popular online retailer Daraz.<\/p>\n

The message seemed to suggest huge grassroots support for Khan but Pakistan Today said Daraz denied any such rush of sales.<\/p>\n

PTI said the blocking of mobile phone and data services during voting hours was intended to disconnect their activists on the ground and prevent a landslide.<\/p>\n

But experts say it also made social media “rife” with disinformation.<\/p>\n

“Censorship and lack of access to information will obviously breed disinformation,” digital rights activist Usama Khilji said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD: Fake boycotts and fictional ballots: a deluge of disinformation accompanied Pakistan\u2019s contentious election, with a delayed vote count underway on Friday. Pakistan\u2019s poll is the most fraught of recent years, with ex-prime minister Imran Khan jailed and his arch-rival Nawaz Sharif appearing to be the favourite of the powerful military-led establishment. Early results show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/voters-enter-a-polling-station1707404267-0\/voters-enter-a-polling-station1707404267-0.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t