The Dawn of the Narrative Builders: As Social Media Platforms Run Amok, Governments Seem to Be Sailing in the Same Boat

As social media platforms continue to operate largely unchecked and unregulated, both the hybrid Pakistani government and established democracies in Europe, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, appear to be facing a common challenge.

When Elon Musk acquired Twitter for approximately $44 billion, most market and media analysts believed he had overpaid significantly. Many viewed the narcissist billionaire's ego as leading him to a disastrous venture.

They anticipated that Twitter, which Musk renamed X, would ultimately be his downfall. Given that the platform's revenue streams could never justify the price he paid for it, it remains to be seen whether it does indeed turn out to be a financial fiasco in the long run, especially considering that it was largely financed through banks.

For now, however, the platform has granted him an unparalleled reach and influence, despite his vast wealth. Following a $100 million donation to the Trump campaign, Musk's presence by the president-elect's side during the run-up to the elections and his subsequent appointment to a senior government role have seen both his wealth and political power grow substantially.

While the Pakistani hybrid set-up maintains near-total control over traditional media platforms, ranging from TV/radio to newspapers, ensuring compliance and favorable coverage, it has been forced to completely shut off the tap when it comes to social media due to its inability to influence or control the dominant narrative there.

Musk raised a red herring often used by the far right in the UK to support Islamophobic, racist Tommy Robinson.

The hybrid set-up not only has most traditional media groups on their knees but also enjoys a monopoly over coercive tools, with armed state institutions/organizations at its beck and call. In the opposite corner, the PTI (mainly its leader Imran Khan) continues to hold sway over public opinion and consolidates its considerable support base in the country via its unrivaled ascendancy over social media and the latter's narrative-building tools.

The Pakistani state, or more accurately, its hybrid government, has appeared helpless in countering the PTI narrative, which continues to find resonance among large chunks of the country (to those who will ask how I reached the ‘large chunks’ conclusion, I would point to the last election, where the party emerged with most seats, despite unfavorable headwinds of all sorts).

It has lacked knowledge of social media, sophistication and expertise in evolving a policy where it is not always the case of using a sledgehammer — authoritarian means — to block out views not favorable to it or in line with its desires. It could do well to look elsewhere.

Two recent issues that Elon Musk raised on X with his over 200m followers are a prime example of how to stay ahead on social media despite your mistakes. Elon Musk took on the core of the hard right of the dominant pro-Trump Republican Party, which is vehemently anti-immigration, by supporting (fast-track) ‘H-1B’ visas for specialists/experts so ‘they could contribute to the US economy’.

While Musk made sense in this case, the backlash was severe. One can be sure Trump transition team members may have had a quiet word with him. Musk’s response, which could well have owed itself to his media team, raised a controversial issue away from the States and successfully drew attention away from what many hardcore Republicans saw as an outrageous stance.

Musk raised a red herring often used by the far right in the UK to support Islamophobic, racist Tommy Robinson, currently imprisoned on contempt of court charges. Musk implied that many British-Pakistani Asian gangs involved in grooming underage (child) girls for sex were not prosecuted because of considerations for their ethnicity and because Pakistani-origin Britons were a voting bloc for Labour.

He also implied that this happened under the current Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer’s, watch when the latter was director of public prosecutions for five years from 2008 to 2013. Historically, some prosecutions did not happen when Starmer was DPP because the police and local prosecutors believed there was insufficient evidence and ‘unreliable witnesses’.

However, these decisions not to prosecute were overturned by Nazir Afzal, himself of Pakistani origin, chief prosecutor for Northwest of England, appointed by Starmer in 2011. Afzal has a sterling record of prosecuting these gangs and of earning record convictions and sentencing.

A national inquiry report (called the Jay Rep­ort) in 2014, after a 2012 The Times investigation into the child sex grooming scandal in Rotherham in northwest England, and later a (parliamentary) Commons Home Affairs Committee, did not point the finger at Starmer.

In fact, the Home Affairs Committee lauded his efforts to address the issue in these words: Mr Starmer has striven to improve the treatment of victims of sexual assault within the criminal justice system throughout his term as Director of Pu­­blic Prosecution (DPP). In 2014, he was knighted for his “services to law and