The TikTok Fitna: Moral panics, short-form video, and the contested public sphere in Pakistan

Hina Nawaz; Syed Abdul Siraj

Authors

Hina Nawaz PhD Mass Communication, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Author
Syed Abdul Siraj Senior Professor at Department of Media Studies, Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Author

Keywords:

TikTok, Platform Governance, Moral Panic, Public Sphere, Global South, Pakistan, Content Moderation, Digital Culture, Youth Culture, Internet Censorship, Social Media

Abstract

In Pakistan, the social media platform TikTok is in a paradoxical situation: it has become one of the most popular applications in the country and simultaneously the topic of frequent state bans. The paper claims that this recurring confrontation is not simply the issue of policing immoral content but a symptom of deeper societal conflict in the definition and control of the public sphere in the digital era. Based on the theory of moral panic by Stanley Cohen and counter-publics by Nancy Fraser, we examine the official state discourse supporting the idea of TikTok as a Fitna (a source of chaos or sedition). We argue that this platform is an effective, decentralized counter-public among the youth, rural citizens, and other groups often marginalized by Pakistan elite, state-controlled media. By critically analyzing various applications of the platform, including vernacular commerce and religious discourse, and considering the rise and fall of bans, this paper records the creation of a new, contentious space. We find that the TikTok battle is a main arena of the future of the Pakistani public sphere, where global platforms can radically reconfigure social and political communication at the grassroots, disrupting established patterns of state-centric cultural and informational control.

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