Social Media Hype! Is Pakistan facing challenges too?

Due to the increased number of smartphone and internet users in Pakistan, social media’s popularity has also increased to a great extent in the country. A group of four young researchers from the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan explored the reasons behind the increased use of social media among Pakistani internet users and the respective challenges.

Four young researchers, Shahzad Memon, Sorath Mahar, Lachman Das Dhomeja and Farman Perzado from the Institute of Information and Communication Technology of the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan explored the reasons behind the increased use of social media among the Internet users in the country and the challenges this increased use is bringing with it.

Increased use of smartphones and the internet has ultimately increased the popularity and use of social media all across the world and Pakistan is no exception to this trend.

The group of these four researchers explored that social media has emerged as one of the most effective contemporary mediums that people use for sharing and creating content in different ways. Facebook, Twitter, Digg and MySpace are stated as the most commonly used types of media. The study found that internet users spend more time on social networking sites. As per the current figures provided by Datareportal.com, the number of social media users reached 37 million in January 2020.

Although there are several positive impacts of increased use of social media platforms, Pakistan is facing multiple challenges as well. Among the range of challenges, this study focused on increased rates of cyber blackmailing, cyber crimes, ethics, identity protection, and security issues.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan provides Hacking, Cyber Stalking, Money Laundering, Bullying, Intellectual Property Rights, Financial Fraud, Malicious Software, Identity theft, Denial of Service Attack, and Digital Privacy which supports the focus of this study to great extent.

Cybercrimes in all these categories are increasing and this phenomenon has increased the need for immediate steps at the government level to ensure the right use of social media platforms and provide security to users as well. With such a significant number of users, Social Media may serve as the most powerful platform to bring positive change in Pakistan.

Researchers emphasized that the government can also exploit the power of social media platforms to connect and interact with the general public and give them a platform to communicate their problems and issues. They also asserted that the government needs to pass laws and implement regulations to create an environment of secure digital socialization with an emphasis on spreading positive content. On the other hand, users also need to be aware of potential security threats over the social media platforms and what they can do to protect themselves and other users as per the guidelines provided by respective authorities.

References:

Memon, S., Mahar, S., Dhomeja, L. D., & Pirzado, F. (2015, June). Prospects and challenges for social media in Pakistan. In 2015 International Conference on Cyber Situational Awareness, Data Analytics and Assessment (CyberSA) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sama-Tanveer/publication/304215702_The_Incidence_of_Cybercrime_in_Pakistan/links/576ef45e08ae62194746bce0/The-Incidence-of-Cybercrime-in-Pakistan.pdf