Social media has inevitably become a permanent part of our lives. If a natural disaster hits the area we’re living in; we flock over to Facebook to mark ourselves safe and check on our family and friends. Twitter, despite its character limits, has become a forum for every kind of political debate, mainly due to US President Donald Trump’s use of the site to give statements. Instagram is where everyone puts their best foot forward with glamorous imagery and TikTok – well, that’s a whole other story.
Back in 2014, you may have heard of an emerging app known as Musical.ly – a platform where users could create videos lip-synching to audios ranging from 15-60 seconds. In 2018, this app was acquired by Chinese company ByteDance’s TikTok, and since then, has been growing in popularity until it hit one billion downloads in early 2019.
There’s no one way to describe TikTok – for some; it’s a forum to make memes and funny videos. For others, it’s a way to showcase their acting and dancing skills. And for many, it’s a platform that can become a real pathway to Internet stardom – the coveted role of the social media influencer. It isn’t effortless to describe what an influencer is – in the broadest sense of the word, someone who generates an influence through their social media following. In Pakistan, though, the trail of the social media influencer is one that has been largely left unexplored.
Of course, the market has caught on and understood just how valuable the support of social media influencers could be, especially for marketing purposes. In the last year or so, several initiatives have popped up that help people on their way to Internet stardom (or those who aspire to have it) monetize their profiles or connect with brands on campaigns. And one of the first places that they’ll look for people with the right reach and the right audience is TikTok.
A report found that 19.5 million Pakistanis downloaded the TikTok app in 2019, making up a significant population of users from the country. But why does TikTok work so well for the Pakistani youth? It is, after all, a complete reversal of the traditional social media platform. Sure, you can still brag about your money on the app, showcase your designer items, and subtly flex your new car. Yet, at the same time, someone sitting in their room, making a 5-second video of them lip-synching to a hilarious bit from the office could get just as many plays as you – maybe even more. Perhaps that is where the appeal of TikTok lies for the average Pakistani – the promise of the glitz and glamour of life as an influencer, all achieved through an app that gives you the perfect tools you need to commodity virality.
And this is where things turn around for the Pakistani social media star. Virality is a critical component that makes or breaks an influencer (think: the Kardashians), but often comes with a severe backlash from the public. You will be mocked, you will be vilified, and in the worst-case scenario, you may even be sent death threats. In a country with 37 million social media users (and counting), going viral may mean having to leave the space you worked so hard to build because the backlash is so intense and angry, and potentially life-threatening.
Right now, the United States and Iran are engaged in a conflict which carries the threat of escalating into a full blown-out war, one that may impact everyone in the world, in particular, Iran’s next-door neighbor, Pakistan. Around the world, political analysts, journalists, and celebrities are exhaustively discussing this threat – at the same time, Pakistan’s news cycle is focused predominantly on the ‘scandalous’ life of TikTok star Hareem Shah.
So who is Hareem Shah? Since late last year, Shah has found herself in controversy after controversy involving politicians, cricketers, and even the Foreign Minister’s chair. Recently, There has been much dialogue about her tweets and videos – is she committing a cybercrime? Whose interests is she serving? What are her goals and ambitions? No one seems to have the answers, and no one seems to want to know either. The mystery and intrigue only build into the controversy after all. That is, until recently, when Shah was doxxed online – prompting serious questions about her (and her family’s) safety. Many a viral WhatsApp video has been made about this infamous figure, including one by her father, apologizing for her ‘embarrassing’ videos, which Shah even shared to her personal Twitter, asking people to leave her family out of the controversy.
Shah’s safety continues to be an issue – just last month, she (and other twitter users) shared clips of an event in Dubai, where a mob of angry men surrounded the TikTok star and continued to harass her. The striking image of Shah in a mall in Dubai, surrounded by Pakistani men who hurled abuse at her, pushed and kicked. At the same time, she was very visibly distressed and uncomfortable, is more than enough to prompt a discussion – why the anger?
Viral figures, particularly viral female figures in Pakistan, have always been met with the same backlash. Whether its Qandeel Baloch’s horrific murder at the end of a long-winded controversy around her videos or Pakistani film icon Meera, who has been mocked (and been at the receiving end of many scandals) persistently for the last few years mainly because of jabs at her spoken English. Just a quick look at any of these figures’ social media profiles indicates the kind of targeted anger and trolling that virality happens to carry with it. This is not a Pakistani phenomenon by any measure – perhaps the fact that social media in Pakistan isn’t as saturated with celebrities, and so those who rise to the top get more attention – both the constructive and destructive types.
But where does this mass anger come from? Studies on trolling find that the accessibility and anonymity that social media offers make it all the more easy for humanity’s darkest characters to reveal themselves in the worst ways possible. Right now, you could create a fake twitter account, go up to the profile of an actor you’ve never liked, and send them a tweet filled with swear words and mean critiques of their acting skills – and there are no repercussions. It is unlikely the target of your bullying would even notice the comment in a sea of other negative feedback, and worst comes to worst, you’d get blocked. Which, to some trolls, is the ultimate win against people they dislike.
Hareem Shah gets the worst of this phenomenon – attacked by people who see her online presence as ‘vulgar’ and ’embarrassing,’ as well as the people who support the politicians and celebrities she has talked about in her content. We’ve all seen this kind of content on our social media timelines after all – a couple of pictures of something the author thinks is against their cultural and religious values, captioned with the term ‘Is this the Islamic Republic of Pakistan?’. After all, this sentence unites many social media users in the country, many of whom believe that there needs to be regulation and policing of what can be posted online based on ‘moral’ norms. And not just that – Shah is also talking about other people who have influence – sharing clips from private phone calls, sharing intimate details of their lives, and more. This has prompted a heated discussion by social media users on what aspects of other people’s lives can be shared online without someone’s consent in the name of the ‘public good.’
The growing demand to regulate social media is not just from trolls on Twitter – In October 2018, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry announced the setting up of a new body to monitor people’s use of social media and to curb defamation online. Consider this with the fact that what is posted online in Pakistan is already surveyed, observed, and even censored. The initiative can uniquely impact the growing social media influencer market. Making it harder for rising influencers to speak their mind about politics, religion, culture, and more about the ‘testy’ subjects that can place them at the receiving end of not just online trolling, but even severe legal consequences offline. At the same time, this initiative may be a sigh of relief for people who have found themselves judged negatively online with no path of recourse.
All in all, the power (and financial) shift to social media marketing and the support of influencers is steadily becoming normal in Pakistan. However, people aspiring to have this critical role always walk on a tight rope of influence. Tip one way, and you’re not relevant enough to get the business and engagement you need; tip the other way, and you’re so popular that your safety in the country is compromised. And the scary part is, the difference between one or the other could be just one tweet.
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