This chapter explores the treatment of religious minorities, especially Ahmadis, in cyberspace. Pakistan’s Twitter top trends of 2019–2020 are analysed to look into the kind of content propagated on Twitter against Ahmadis. Structures of online social networks are explored to understand how Twitter users operated in an organized way to attack Ahmadis. One of the most active and organized groups involved in spreading hatred against Ahmadis was a religious-based political party – Tehreek e Labbaik (TLP). TLP’s modus operandi is discussed to see how they worked as an organized group to target liberal voices and religious minorities. The chapter also has a section on the development of cyber laws under autocratic and democratic rules, and the in/effectiveness of the laws in protecting the minorities in digital space.
Reference : Digital autocratization of Pakistan