Handing over the reins: What will happen to the PM's social media accounts?

KARACHI: On Sunday, the National Assembly was expected to vote on the no-confidence resolution against Prime Minister Imran Khan. But, in what is seen as a controversial move, the president, on advice of the prime minister, dissolved the assembly and ordered a fresh election.

The matter is now under review by the Supreme Court.

Should the Court decide that the lower house will proceed with the vote of no confidence, then the opposition say they have more than the required 172 members on its sides to vote out Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In either case, it seems the government right now stands dissolved, even though the president has asked the prime minister to continue till a caretaker is appointed.

In such a scenario, what happens to the social media accounts of Prime Minister Imran Khan and other top officials?

These accounts have been verified by Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

PM’s YouTube account alters name

Before Sunday, the Prime Minister Office’s YouTube account was quietly changed to “Imran Khan”.

With it the channel lost its verified tick, as according to YouTube's rules, the tick disappears after a channel is renamed.

When the change occurred, Geo.tv reached out to Imran Ghazali, the general manager of the Digital Media Wing (DMW) of the government of Pakistan.

“PTI’s social media manages [the YouTube channel],” Ghazali said, “We [the DMW] only have Twitter and Facebook accounts. The YouTube channel was created before the Digital Media Wing.”

He further clarified that the DMW was established in 2020 and the YouTube channel was created before the establishment of the wing.

Handing over the social reins

When the PTI came to power in 2018, a controversy was created after the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) refused to hand over the Punjab Government account to the new ruling party.

Currently, the online account of the “Government of Punjab” is managed by the public relations department of the province.

Saman Rai, the director general public relations in Punjab, confirmed to Geo.tv that the account is under her department’s control and will continue to be run by her team despite Chief Minister Usman Buzdar’s resignation.

The protocol in the United States

Governments in most democracies use social media platforms as a tool of communicating with the public.

That is primarily why these handles or accounts should be treated as government assets and be transferred to successive administrations.

In the United States, data related to a former president is covered under the Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978.

According to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the law “changed the legal ownership of the official records of the president from private to the public.”

The act “established a new statutory structure under which presidents, and subsequently NARA, must manage the records of their administrations”.

It’s fair to say that former US president Barack Obama was the first “social media president”. Obama, in his eight years, regularly used YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat. And it was not just Obama, the first lady also actively used social media.

In fact it was during Obama's tenure that the White House began archiving social media accounts too.

In a blog, during Obama’s term, the White House stated:

“First, we are preserving the material we’ve created with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). From tweets to snaps, all of the material we’ve published online will be preserved with NARA just as previous administrations have done with records ranging from handwritten notes to faxes to emails. Second, wherever possible, we are working to ensure these materials continue to be accessible on the platforms where they were created, allowing for real-time access to the content we’ve developed. Finally, we are working to ensure that the next president and administration – regardless of party – can continue to use and develop the digital assets we have created to connect directly with the people they serve.”

The blog had added that the @POTUS handle used by the US president on Twitter will be transferred to the next president.

Then the NARA also created a new handle @POTUS44 that compiled Obama's tweets, while Donald Trump’s tweets were archived under the handle @POTUS45.

This method of archiving was also used for the first lady, the White House press secretary, vice president, second lady and other official accounts.

What about the UK?

The prime minister of the United Kingdom works and resides at 10 Downing Street in London, and the official Twitter handle of the British premier is also named after it.

Unlike the United States, where an administration change brings in new people, in Downing Street, civil servants continue performing their functions.

Even though the UK also has an archives department, it does not transfer data to another account like the US. The Downing Street Twitter account was established in 2008 when Gordon Brown was in power and has been used by successive prime ministers.

Brown, who was a member of the Labour Party, established the Twitter account of Downing street as he was in power in 2008. In 2010, the Conservative Party took over, but unlike in the US, the Downing Street account was handed over to the next premier.

Furthermore, if a Twitter search is carried out related to the account, one can find tweets issued by Brown on the Downing Street account.

The Downing Street account is run by the UK Prime Minister’s Office's Digital Communications Team. The team handles the Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, and Facebook pages of Downing Street.

A smooth online handover in Pakistan

Now, the focus on digital media was one of the cornerstones of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government.

The PTI-led government had also set up a Digital Media Wing that, according to the Press Information Department, “creates content and manages digital media assets of the Prime Minister’s office on social media including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram”.

To understand the process of Pakistan’s official social media accounts, Geo.tv reached out to the focal person to the prime minister on digital media, Dr Arslan Khalid, on Saturday. Although it is unclear whether Dr Khalid continues to hold the office or not since the government has been dissolved.

Dr Khalid told Geo.tv that the official social media handles are “state’s property” and are attached with “.gov emails”.

He further added that these accounts will follow the US archiving format.

The PM’s focal person explained, using Twitter’s example, that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will send a letter to Twitter notifying it of a change in government.

“A new account will be made and will be verified at once and the followers will get transferred,” said Dr Khalid. He also added that “if” Prime Minister Khan is voted out, then whichever government officers will be appointed to the Prime Minister's Office, they will take over the accounts as well.

Dr Khalid did not comment when asked if the Pakistani government reached out to Twitter, Meta, or other social media companies at an official level.

“A letter will be sent that this account is verified and archival accounts etc. They will do it because it’s not an issue,” said Dr Khalid. He added that it’s the “choice” of the next prime minister if he or she wishes to use their personal account.

“This archival [method] will ensure no data is deleted,” said Dr Khalid.

The prime minister’s focal person was also asked about why Pakistan was not choosing to follow the UK format.

“The problem here is that one will come and another after that,” he said, “It’s better that everyone creates a new account, so whoever comes next does not say that their data has been deleted.”

Dr Khalid was also asked whether the YouTube account, whose name was changed recently, would also be archived but he did not respond.

Archiving digital data

When inquired if the Pakistani government has an archival policy in place for digital assets of the government, the prime minister’s focal person said that his team had suggested the idea of developing a digital library.

“Here, we took an initiative of a digital library but, unfortunately, in the current situation, I don’t know if the next government opts for it or not because everyone has a [different] focus,” said Dr Khalid.

The focal person shared that the backend for such an archive was created not just for Facebook and Twitter, but for “everything”.

“For instance, if the prime minister’s picture is being taken, it will go under a digital library,” he explained, “What happens right now, for instance, is that if a journalist or anyone needs a high definition picture, they call me or a government official but the library would ensure that selective data of every inauguration [is kept].”

The PM’s focal person shared that the Imran Khan-led government had planned to launch the digital library on the 75th Independence Day but “unfortunately, no work was done on it for nearly a month and everything has been stale”.

Dr Khalid shared that the backend of the library was ready but since approvals are required, things could not move ahead.

A normal handover

Pakistan is yet to get an official digital archival policy, digital rights expert Usama Khilji told Geo.tv.

 “Normal official handover of documents in ministries and cabinet should be followed when it comes to digital assets as well,” said Khilji.

The expert does not believe that Pakistan should follow the US archiving policy as the social media account is “not based on individuals” and the reach it gets is based on the office the person is in.

He said that there is a need to develop an official policy on the matter adding that the public should have access to those accounts.

This raises an important question as the ruling party has changed the name of the YouTube handle of the Prime Minister’s Office.

General Manager of the Digital Media Wing of the Government of Pakistan, Ghazali, had told Geo.tv, previously, that the digital media wing does not manage the YouTube account of the PM Office and is handled by the PTI’s social media team.

The same was also stated by Dr Khalid in an interview with Independent Urdu.

When the change had occurred, Dr Khalid had told the publication that he had spoken to PTI’s social media head Jibran Ilyas and he was informed that he had only changed the name of the channel, not the URL. He had also said that he had directed Ilyas to bring the channel to its original name.

However, if we look at the channel, currently, the URL has been changed and Ilyas did not revert the channel to its original name as he was directed by Dr Khalid.

Interestingly, the "about" section of the channel shows that it was created in 2019 indicating that it was created after the PTI came to power.

Furthermore, it also raises the question as to why a YouTube account created for the Prime Minister’s Office was being handled by the PTI’s social media team.

Even though Ghazali and Dr Khalid distanced the account from the Digital Media Wing, the information posted on the state’s Press Information Department clearly states that the department handles all digital media, including the YouTube account.

This fact could result in a tussle between the next government and the PTI over digital assets, just as it happened over the Punjab Government account in 2018.

Khilji said that this issue falls under the Right to Information Act, explaining that the act is covered under Article 19-A and if the next government wishes to retrieve the account, they can reach out to the courts or the Right to Information Commission.