IN the most generic sense, social media refers to a collection of engaging online applications that facilitate the creation, curation, and sharing of content formed by others. Though all social media platform uses similar features, yet they differ from one another in their designs, systems, standards, and client base. It is argued that if early conflicts involved combat with weapons such as stones and sticks, contemporary battle is waged on a technologically advanced battleground wherein communication via social media has become an unexpected, and potent weapon. A number of the groups are exploiting disinformation and phoney profiles to sow terror, instigate aggression, and manipulate results. It is argued that the unintended outcome of peoples’ improved accessibility is the deterioration of unity in society causing detrimental effects on social cohesion and greater cultural harmony.Conventional conceptions of both conflict and peace are impacted by 5th Generation Warfare and postmodernism. It is necessary to take a transformative approach to the definition of peace, where comparative and contextual peace building techniques can affect how societies organise themselves and foster a peaceful perspective. While 5th Generation and Post-modern Warfare embrace a variety and kinds of conflict, involving non-kinetic force and soft aggression, traditional conceptions of security merely encompass a lack of physical force. Conflict in the 5th generation war is seen as involving not just intra-state disputes but also conflicts between cultural groups that are carried over international borders and used by organisations and individual affiliates.
Social media networks are armaments because they implicitly magnify whatever content that appears on their sites and tailor it to the people who would respond to it most effectively employing extremely private information and algorithms. It is established fact that political and social entities in Pakistan use social media to promote disinformation or discontents, idealising combats, or specifically aiming their attacks at those most at risk. These indoctrination through social media include national security apparatus, national solidarity, social unity, and discarding allegiance to homeland. The 5th Generation warfare through social media has added to insecurity and instability in Pakistan. The dissemination of propaganda is one of the main uses of social media networks. This is essential to all other facets of digital planning since it gives all other types of material relevance and significance. In Pakistan, it is substantiated with evidences that militant and some political organisations, general masses especially the youth, and non-state actors frequently use social networking to publicise claims of their challengers and the opponents’ violations of human rights abuses or their wins on arenas, or inciting violence, or releasing fake documents or the videos despite the fact this could involve deception. In the era of post-modern warfare through the social media, the culture of disagreements among political, ethnic and different social groups both aims at aggressive and hostile behaviours that encourage confrontation at the lowest level.
The information war is becoming more prevalent as a result of the development of communication tools, as a result, it is crucial to understand how contemporary technologies for communiqué and info fit into the framework of hybrid warfare, where social media is a potent tool. By implementing various techniques of adeptly combining security measures with financial constraints, hacking attempts, and propagation, among other things, tactical and electoral objectives are achieved. There have been initiatives of the Federal and Provincial Governments to regulate and secure the digital systems like Ordinances and Acts such as Electronic Transaction Ordinance of 2002, the Investigation for Fair Trial (IFTA) Act of 2013, the Pakistan Telecommunication Act of 1996, and the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (PECA) of 2016, National Cyber Security Policy was launched in 2022 to tackle the challenges and risks of the 5th Generation Warfare and to use against a variety of social media snuggeries, such as stealing money using spamming or phishing, hacking elections, or damaging or fiddling with essential systems. With these policies, Acts and Ordinances, the involvement of social media in divergence and confrontation has been under close examination, especially in the wake of violent crimes of prominence. Despite all efforts, social media still active in playing out the conflicts, including the encouragement of aggression, the dissemination of propaganda and false information, the hiring of new members to militant organisations, and the expanding use of social media to silence critics. The real threat national security is from the forces that create hype and channelize indoctrination. In this era of social media, private companies provide propaganda services that people can employ which has led to a significant portion of this activity becoming professionalized. Researchers looked at how digital warriors utilise various communication techniques to sway the public’s view, including fabricating misleading or altered media, information-driven focusing, and the use of malicious strategies like launching disinformation initiatives or harassing people on the internet. Pakistan should develop clear legislation to regulate social media, establish an independent authority, ensure user privacy and data protection, and hold platforms accountable for misuse of user data. Combat disinformation, digital literacy, account verification, and collaboration with social media companies. Ensure judicial oversight, public consultation, and international cooperation to ensure fair regulations. Protect freedom of expression while maintaining transparency and a democratic process.
—The writer is PhD in Political Science, and visiting faculty at QAU Islamabad.
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