The nexus of religious populism and digital authoritarianism in Pakistan

Pakistan has a turbulent political history. In the seven decades since its creation, the country has faced four military-led dictatorships and another two decades under indirect military rule. Given this political trend, authoritarianism is not a novel phenomenon in the country. Digital authoritarianism, however, is a relatively new domain of oppression. This paper looks at how a political party in power and the “establishment” (military elite and its civilian collaborators) have been increasing the control of digital mediums as well as weaponizing space. This dual control and usage allow for growing digital authoritarianism. Using the case study of Imran Khan’s government (2018-2022) and its collaboration with the military establishment in enforcing digital authoritarianism, this article uses four levels of an assessment of internet governance in Pakistan (whole network level, sub-network level, proxy level, and user level). In addition, the role of Khan’s political party’s Islamist populist outlook in contributing to authoritarianism is also discussed. A lot of censorship happens around ideas of protecting Islam and Pakistan’s Muslim identity. The review also finds that the establishment uses not only religion but also ultra-nationalism and fears of foreign attacks, primarily by “Hindu” India, as means to closely surveil and curb the rights of citizens which it deems not worthy of trust. Our results find that Pakistan’s digital space is highly oppressive where ideas of religion, ontological insecurity, and nationalism are weaponized to legitimize the state’s growing authoritarianism.