I HAD to step outside social media silos to understand what was happening in Lahore, because my trusted sources — ie, this newspaper and other legacy outlets — were reporting on student protests while information about the alleged rape seemed muted. On social media, meanwhile, things were alarming, even horrific. No rape was as possible as the cover up of one. I wanted to create a timeline myself to make sense of things — this is before The Current published a very good explainer — namely, had a rape occurred?

While student protests and police brutality have continued across Punjab, there’s more clarity, at least for me: a young woman and her family’s name have been dragged through the mud, and they will likely have to spend the next few years explaining that she/their daughter was not raped. Students who are braving police violence are being used for political point-scoring. No one believes the government, and likely won’t even if Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz pursues criminal cases against those who spread misinformation, as her administration seems to be doing. Minds have been made up across the political divide.

Welcome to this age of disinformation — with dangerous consequences.

Let it be clear that misinformation about this case was spread at a dizzying speed. Investigative journalist Umar Cheema, who was one of the first to report there was no rape at the said college, tweeted a video of a woman claiming to be the rape victim’s mother on Friday evening. She tells her followers on TikTok what happened to her daughter and asks them to call out the government and the news media for covering up the crime. After this teary-eyed confession, she posts her next video, wherein she is lip-syncing to a Bollywood song.

It’s easy to dismiss this woman as an attention-seeker but it’s the folks who believe it and share it that worry me more. According to Tom Buchanan, who wrote a paper on disinformation in 2020, those who deliberately create it do so “to deceive and mislead audiences for the purposes of causing harm, or for political, personal or financial gain”. People who then share it do so because it aligns with their worldview. Many, citing the sheer strength and effectiveness of a particular political party’s social media strategy, suspect its supporters of pushing news of this rape, saying they got the turmoil they wanted. Meanwhile, brave students will bear the brunt of police violence.

Whatever women say in this country is treated with suspicion.

Of course, a rape can occur on campus. Of course, parents would deny it. Of course, a guard or male school employee could be the harasser, CCTV footage could be deleted, the school administration could pressure and/or threaten students, the media could be involved in hushing things up. We have seen iterations of this play out plenty of times before. In this case, the police officer who told students to return to classes lest “something else” happen to them too is no different to the police officer asking why a woman gang-raped on the Motorway was driving alone at night.

We live in a country where whatever women say is treated with suspicion. I’m lying if I said I was raped, I’m covering up rape if I say I wasn’t. I’m telling the truth if I say a guard harassed me, I’m lying if I say an actor did. It is exhausting to be a woman in this country. Attitudes and policies deny us basic humanity. Digital platforms do not protect us.

Disinformation is a global threat and requires a global strategy and policies to quell it. However, misogyny threatens to unravel Pakistan’s core. Misogyny is being monetised, and it is being used to create divisions in society. It should be seen as as big a national security threat as terrorism. In fact, misogyny is terrorism. In August, the UK said it was planning to tackle misogyny as extremism. There are great concerns about incel culture in the West, promoted by the likes of Andrew Tate. Here, we elect men like Tate, invite them as state guests and fund campaigns for them to run for Oxford chancellor.

The government alone can’t fight the kind of disinformation this Lahore ‘rape’ case has shown. It requires parents and schools to teach media literacy classes from grade 1. And laws that don’t suppress civil liberties but punish those who spread false information. Not release them.

If not, I fear parents won’t want to send their daughters to colleges, women won’t want to stand for public office (given the disgusting hate campaigns they face) or report sexual harassment of violence due to the stigma. This will set us back decades. In 2022, Pakistan was the second worst country for women in terms of gender parity according to the World Econo­mic Forum. Imagine sinking lower.

The writer is an instructor of journalism.

X: *@LedeingLady*

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2024