Whether one is liberal or conservative, left leaning or right wing, one political issue that the whole country can get behind is that misinformation and false allegations are not tolerable, especially of crimes as serious and volatile as blasphemy. This deliberate and malicious spread of misinformation can lead to riots, loss of life, further division in society, and ultimately, a weakening of the writ of law.

The aftermath of the Aurat March has shown us the worst face of this menace. Support of the Aurat March and feminism is one thing—there is room for civil disagreement and discourse on the topic. What is not acceptable is how the virulent backlash has given way to coordinated defamation and misinformation campaigns, which include doctoring fake videos and posters to make it seem like the Aurat March included illegal rhetoric in its demands.

Such false misinformation includes altering videos to put up false blasphemous subtitles, claiming that the Aurat March supporters waved the flag of France when it was the flag of a local organisation, and deliberately misconstruing posters to create an impression that the supporters espoused anti-national, anti-religious rhetoric.

There should be no tolerance for such dangerous campaigns and the government needs to take action against those perpetuating mistruths. This includes prominent journalists, so-called experts and well-known social media personalities. There is clear cut incitement of violence and murder—the government knows very well that allegations of such nature lead to vigilante and mob violence.

Aurat March organisers are receiving death and violent threats openly. False allegations, particularly of blasphemy and being anti-national have become a crutch for a malicious segment of the society and have posed huge problems for the government before.

The government should make an example of those who have lied and spread false content, and then also work on strengthening legislation which criminalises and severely punishes those who engineer volatile and deceptive social media campaigns.