Andleeb Abbas

Political battle on social media

“It is just a Facebook party.”

“Who reads tweets?”

“Instagram is just for film actors.” “Whatsapp is just a rubbish dump.”

These comments were common a few years ago. Real politics was all on ground in rallies. Not so any longer.

Starting with the Egypt Taksim Square protests to Donald Trump’s winning his way to White House, social media has become the main media. Electronic media is now following what happens on social media. The Twitter hashtags are becoming breaking news. Facebook viral videos are the topic of talk shows. The pictures of politicians on Instagram are entertainment gossip. Social media has become a platform for opinions to be made and remade. That is what politics is all about.

Social media, unlike the electronic media, is a platform for all. Its popularity is due to its inclusiveness and access to everybody.  Social media platforms are positively perceived as an expression of the liberalizing ethos of the internet, tools for empowering citizens, enabling economic opportunities, increasing freedom of expression, spreading liberal ideas and providing an alternative communication platform for dissidents. Social media platforms are negatively perceived as fake news propaganda producers that have little regulation, are socially destructive, addictive, misleading and is creating psychological complexities in youth.

Both sides may be correct. What is indisputable is the power of social media to take a narrative, good or bad, in a click to all segments of the society instantly. That is why for politicians the mass reach to influence opinions is ideal. Six main social media narrative features that politicians can use for their campaigns and support are:

1. Data analytic – Data is votes. Data is influence. Data is reach. We are seeing politicians use big data analytics to optimize their campaigns. For example, experts and journalists have coined Trump’s campaign a ‘data machine’ powered by AI capable of swinging voters, demonstrating the power of data and analytics systems. Trump tweeted his way through the win in 2016. The study by Petrova and Sen says that within the first month of using Twitter, politicians were able to raise between 1% and 3% of what they would have raised in a two-year traditional campaign and that too without cost. In Pakistan, PTI is the political party that has used social media to reach youth. Their 2013 volunteer registration movement known as “tabdeeli razakar program” started the political usage of data on social media.

2. Voter engagement – A new study co-authored by Yildirim offers some answers. “Social Media and Political Contributions: The Impact of New Technology on Political Competition,” written with Maria Petrova and Ananya Sen, finds that political newcomers can get a substantial boost in support by using social media channels, which cost next to nothing making politicians a click away from voters. The concept of micro-targeting through Facebook etc is very persuasive. The data shows that the voter prefers a certain party, a certain slogan and that can help customize the political appeal to match his preferences. The social media studies literally can get into the minds and wallets of people and make them buy and vote for designed choices.

3. Opinion leaders – To influence political thoughts, politicians can use opinion leaders. Religious parties have used social media through this strategy. Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan has used lectures of their leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi to create a huge following pretty quickly. MQM London, when banned on electronic media, used Facebook etc to relay speeches of Altaf Hussain. In the rural areas, the mosque preacher in Pakistan and the evangelist in America is capable of providing decisive swing votes in favour of a particular candidate.

4. Celebrity endorsements – Previously, celebrities like movie stars or sports stars were supposed to be apolitical, especially in a country like Pakistan. Since the social media era evolved, stars have become vocal about political issues as well. In the present movement by PTI, many actors have openly sided by this issue. Stars like Atif Aslam, Mahira Khan or sports celebrities like Wasim Akram have a huge fan base. They have Instagram following of millions. Their views can impact many undecided or uninterested people to start following their line of thought.

5. Hashtags – The roti kapra aur makaan slogan remained the only memorable political slogan for almost three decades till social media arrived in Pakistan. Slogans have become powerful movement propellers as hashtags. The power of hashtags has not gone unnoticed by politicians and political campaigns either. As more people turn online for information about political candidates, these tags are often employed strategically to reach potential voters through word-of-mouth advertising. Just look at the power of the hashtag “Imported hakoomat namanzoor”. It has broken world record of over 10 million tweets and retweets. Twitter binder has just announced it. Imagine the reach, the resonate value and the impact it will have compared to just a slogan raised in a rally.

6. Tik Toking the world – Sound and sights are memorable. Videos on Facebook have now gone to nearly every forum. A video that has viral content gets to Whatsapp groups, Instagram, and Twitter all over the world. Remember the recent “Pawri ho rahi hai” video phenomenon. Similarly, the Chinese TikTok app is explosive. It has beaten all apps in a record time. Just consider these statistics by Brandastic. As of February 2021, TikTok has an estimated 1.1 billion users worldwide. As of June 2021, 60 % of TikTok users are between the ages of 16 and 24. Almost 50% of TikTok’s global audience is under the age of 34. The TikTok app has been downloaded over 1.5 billion times worldwide. TikTok downloads in 2020 reached 850 million. The TikTok app reach is worldwide: 466 million are from India, 173 million from China, and 123 million from the U.S. The average user spends 52 minutes per day on the TikTok app. ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, is valued at $140 billion making it the world’s most valuable start-up and making the company worth more than Twitter and Coca-Cola. This is the mass grass root reach forum for people wanting to create their own content in their own way. This can be used to get the voter to create and recreate messages of their favourite politicians with a reach beyond face-to-face or even Facebook.

Giving information, spreading disinformation, building profiles and damaging profiles is all part of the political business. This business has found a low cost, high reach, unregulated outlet in the social media information market. With more happening on the social media than on ground, politicians and politics will surely never be the same.

The writer is a columnist, consultant, coach, and an analyst