The Rise of Political Influencers in Digital Pakistan

Abstract

This academic review paper reviews the topic of the growth of political influencers in the changing contours of Pakistan’s digital landscape. The paper shows how more people now have access to the internet and the spread of platforms like Twitter (X), YouTube, TikTok etc to create political discourse and to share public narratives through a medium that are not rooted in conventional political infrastructures and media structures. The paper draws on Agenda-Setting Theory, Uses and Gratifications Theory and the Spiral of Silence to analyze methods, content strategies and interactions of audiences that define the influence of influencer political communication. In the paper, I trace these digital voices by both their democratizing potential the risks they pose—such as misinformation and unregulated content—through recent case events such as 2025 India Pakistan conflict. The paper concludes that political influencers have changed the paradigm of political messaging in Pakistan but that there is an immediate need for ethical guidelines, digital literacy and regulatory controls to establish a political communication space that is balanced and credible in its messaging.