Policing Women’s Voices: A Critical Discourse Study of Gendered Harassment and Linguistic Strategies on Social Media in Pakistan

Abstract

The digital public sphere in Pakistan has grown so quickly that today social media has become a space of active contestation and an alarming increasing trend of gender-based violence (TFGBV) facilitated by technology. This study examines online misogyny, not as individual instances of interpersonal relations, but as a decentralised and systemic form of social control. This is a qualitative study and an attempt to combine the concepts of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA), Foucault's disciplinary power and “digital panopticon” to map out the specific language and discursive strategies used to police, intimidate and silence Pakistani women and gender minorities online. A de-identified set of data shows that there are five main tactical processes: moral policing, character assassination, weaponization of religious norms, doxxing and linguistic trivialization. The study illuminates how they are selectively put into practice on the targeted groups, which include female journalists, feminist activists, digital influencers and transgender public figures to ensure compliance to postcolonial patriarchy. Moreover, it challenges the weaponization of state laws, in particular the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) and points to massive geographical obstacles in the justice process. Finally, this paper introduces a localised qualitative coding schema and urges systemic solutions such as localized platform moderation, decentralized judicial solutions and extensive institutional backing to defeat the digital panopticon.