Hate and violent extremism in Pakistan can be divided into three categories, militant organizations, fundamentalist parties and ethnic separatist organizations.
Terrorism has grown exponentially in the age of social media, resulting in unconventional security challenges for countries like Pakistan.
From a policy perspective, this changing tide of terrorism makes accurate assessment and remediation of security threats a difficult task, hence the need to deeply contextualize Pakistan’s terrorism threat analyses. Is.
At the same time, an accurate assessment of terrorism is equally difficult given the competing nature of primary and secondary data sources, the amount of lies and fake news.
Content circulating on social media is not necessarily factual. Much of this falls into the realm of propaganda, conspiracy theories, and misinformation.
Against this backdrop, it can be misleading to describe local and regional trends in terrorism without a big picture perspective of their political and geographic context. A broad analysis of terrorism oversimplifies the complex realities on the ground, but it ignores many local variations.
Hate and violent extremism in Pakistan can be divided into three categories, militant organizations, fundamentalist parties and ethnic separatist organizations.
The trends of violent extremism in Pakistan cannot be seen separately from the developments in Afghanistan. As the operational environment has evolved with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, so have the operational strategies, social media propaganda operations, recruitment methods and organizational priorities of these groups.
The US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s return to power have fueled militant groups in Pakistan. Therefore, the discussion of the trends of extremism in Pakistan cannot be seen in isolation from the developments of the last two years in Afghanistan.
However, Pakistan’s extremist groups, be it jihadists or ethnic separatist groups, have a large presence on social media. They use these platforms not only to spread their narratives, worldviews and attack claims, but also to recruit and raise funds.
Considering the points mentioned above, it can be said that Pakistan currently has a complex and multi-actor threat environment where the changing geo-political situation, increased access to internet and social media and changing counter-terrorism policies. The upsurge has given a new dimension to violent extremism.
In the past, violent extremists and hate groups have merged and divided as the operating environment has changed.
In short, the advent of social media has changed the landscape of terrorism and violent extremism in Pakistan. Violent and extremist organizations active in the South-West and North-West regions of Pakistan have also developed regional and international links with their like-minded groups.
Such networking through social media has also facilitated the exchange of ideas and mutual learning, which has helped these groups expand their reach and sharpen their operational strategies.
Through virtual learning, these groups not only copy each other’s violent tactics and attack patterns, but also help each other.
In short, as Pakistani extremist groups have extended social media from the real to the virtual world of the battlefield for their own benefit, it has further increased the challenges for Pakistani counter-terrorism authorities.
The Pakistani state can physically subdue these groups through the use of force, but it lacks counter-narratives and alternative narratives against extremist ideologies.
The spread of radical ideologies is attracting a section of Pakistani youth who are torn between growing political uncertainty and economic volatility in the country.
Civil society and social media companies can help Pakistan counter hateful content and violent extremism in cyberspace.
Similarly, social media companies can also engage with local civil society in efforts to develop alternative narratives against extremism through strengthening democracy, social resilience and respect for diversity, dissent and ideological beliefs.
Fighting hate content and violent extremism in Pakistan is a generational struggle. Therefore, focusing on fewer but tangible outcomes is more important than correcting yourself with an overall picture of risk. It is important to remember here that in counter-terrorism and extremism policies, small but tangible results are more effective than large but reversible gains.