DND Report: All political moves and protests organized by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) over the last two years have shown that the party—often described by critics as a cult—has lost popularity among the masses. On multiple occasions, even a handful of people did not show up to support PTI leaders in street protests, while several of those leaders themselves avoided participating in demonstrations they had publicly announced.
Yet, despite this visible decline in street power, the social media trend-making industry remains highly active. Both PTI and its political adversaries continue to pour immense resources into online campaigns, using social platforms to wage battles of perception and influence.
Background interviews with digital marketing practitioners suggest that trend-making has evolved into an industry worth millions of dollars, where nothing significant is achieved without substantial financial investment. In politics, trend-making on social media refers to the creation and amplification of hashtags, memes, short videos, and narratives—either to promote one’s own party or to discredit opponents.
PTI has often targeted national institutions such as the Pakistan Army, the PML-N government, the judiciary, and the parliament. Anti-PTI trends, in return, frequently target former prime minister Imran Khan, his party network, family members, and sympathetic media personalities.
Platforms like Twitter (X), TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have become the key battlegrounds. Practitioners explain that trend-making involves a mix of organic users, influencers, and bot networks working together to push topics into trending lists. However, the current landscape is dominated less by volunteer participation and more by paid influencer campaigns, which are often extremely expensive. They claim that maintaining a single strong trend may cost between 10–15 million Pakistani rupees. These campaigns can last only a few hours or, at most, a day—illustrating how much money is being burned for short-lived visibility.
PTI’s campaigns mostly rely on disinformation and fake news, coordinated tweeting by hundreds of accounts simultaneously, from within Pakistan and abroad including India, United States and automated bots to boost engagement, and influencer marketing strategies for reach.
A social media expert stated that political trend-making overlaps heavily with political marketing and digital advertising, which have become multi-billion-dollar industries worldwide. In 2024, global political campaign spending was estimated at over $50 billion. Digital political advertising alone accounted for $8–10 billion annually, with sharp growth year after year.
In Pakistan’s case, the more anti-PTI trends circulate, the more PTI remains in the headlines
In countries such as the U.S., India, Pakistan, Brazil, and the Philippines, 40–60% of online political spending is directed toward social media campaigns (both ads and trend-making).
This data confirms that political trend-making is now a global industry worth billions of dollars, though often informal, opaque, and not fully reported.
A critical question remains: Why are PTI’s adversaries spending vast sums of money when PTI has already lost much of its ground support and repeatedly failed to mobilize followers on the streets?
Even more importantly: Whose money is being spent?
Is it being financed by politicians from their own party funds?
Or is the government using the public exchequer for these campaigns?
Some experts argue that PTI, despite its declining popularity, spends heavily to remain relevant in the media sphere, while its opponents respond to counter PTI’s campaigns. However, they seldom clarify whether this counter-spending is coming from party coffers (PML-N, allies) or from state funds.
Historically, such media campaigns are built on the psychology of fear. Social media marketing companies often advise governments and ruling parties that the opposition—no matter how weak—still poses a threat, warning that it could rebuild its vote bank or stage a political comeback.
This constant narrative of fear works as a shorthand warning that keeps the business of trend-making alive. But in reality, it also keeps the adversary alive in public discourse. In Pakistan’s case, the more anti-PTI trends circulate, the more PTI remains in the headlines. At some point, this cycle creates paranoia rather than propaganda, ensuring that the “defeated” opponent never truly disappears from the political landscape.
An influencer, when asked to comment on this issue, said that firms in Pakistan are becoming so powerful that they are actively sidelining independent influencers who create successful trends. According to the influencer, these firms charge massive amounts of money for every single trend, whereas individual influencers can perform the same work on a monthly basis at a far more reasonable cost. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the influencer claimed that soon Pakistan’s social media sphere will no longer have space for independent trend-makers. Those who currently earn by creating trends will eventually be forced to join large companies to avoid being purged because companies that mostly work in close alignment with political parties and government entities so powerful to harm the reputation of any individual influencer.
