Hybrid Warfare in Pakistan: Perception Engineering of Conflicts through Social Media Activism.

Abstract

Social Media Activism, while heavily deployed during political election campaigning remains an unexplored academic and statistical discourse in Pakistan. Its role in engineering perceptions for socio political gain is emerging as a well documented, game changing discourse that is shaping contemporary narrative and understanding of Hybrid Warfare in the developed world. Pakistan as a country has been embroiled in fifth generation warfare or hybrid warfare for over two decades now. This exploratory study based on a deductive approach, using mixed methodology aims to answer the research question of whether social media has come of age in the country and emerged as a platform that has transformed activism completely. A primary data study, divided into two sections; the first half explores the role of organic social media activism through a statistical analysis of 2300 users to map trends of social media activism on public and political participation, disinformation, government accountability and civic responsibility. The second half, again a primary level analysis conducted through interviews aims to explore domestic social media activism through international and domestic examples of the Kashmir Issue and Pushtoon Tahaffuz Movement respectively. The research looks to gauge the State understanding, preparedness and response to emerging threats of information warfare, compounded by large scale public participation and increasing demands for transparency under the backdrop of a country embroiled in political, social and religious fractures.